John Riley McLaughlin died in Olympia, WA on October 8, 2024, after an eleven-month battle with metastatic melanoma.
Riley was born in Huntington, West Virginia to John and Joanna Riley McLaughlin on May 17, 1944, on a day when his dad was flying with the US Army Air Forces over Europe. After the end of WWII and the birth of his sister, Joanna, the family moved to San Jose, California, where two more siblings were born, and then to Palo Alto in 1955. Riley showed an early appreciation and talent for music which he developed through performance, composition, and collaboration with other musicians, film makers, software developers, and scientists. Notably, in 1983, Riley collaborated with Dr. David Deamer, a molecular cell biologist at the University of California at Davis, to translate DNA code into music. An example of this groundbreaking DNA music can be found at Molecular Meditation.
During the Vietnam War, Riley enlisted in the Army and was assigned to teach at the US Navy School of Music in Virginia. In 1967 he visited Washington, DC in civilian attire to photograph the anti-war march on the Pentagon and consequently was threatened with court martial. As a result, he agreed to serve out the remainder of his enlistment as a member of the Army Band at Fort Lewis, Washington. He wrote home about views of Mt. Rainier and building igloos in winter. These images impressed his younger sister, Alice, who ultimately chose Washington for her college years and for her residence since then.
After his military service, Riley moved to Gualala, California where he joined the staff of his mother’s newly founded weekly newspaper, the Independent Coast Observer, along with his father and his brother, Steve. In about 1972, Riley returned to the Bay Area where he wrote music scores for Bravura Films, worked in video production for HP, and collaborated on interactive multimedia projects for Apple. He was always eager to find ways to put cutting-edge media technologies such as music synthesizers, interactive hypertext and animation, and touchscreen displays—to innovative use, long before any of these were known and understood. He continued to work in multimedia after a move to Olympia in 1987.
Riley joined the Olympia Unitarian Universalist Congregation in 1993 and became deeply involved in the community there. His favorite UU Principle was, “A Free and Responsible Search for Truth and Meaning.”
Riley was a Renaissance man who appreciated the unique and wondrous gifts of every individual he encountered. He was gracious, gentle and kind, and had a way of showing up for friends and for those who needed a friend. He leaves a legacy of wonder, creativity, and music to fill our souls. He is greatly missed.
Riley is survived by former spouses Mary McLaughlin Davis and Jane McLaughlin; his sister and brother-in-law, Joanna and Thomas Reynolds; his brother and sister-in-law, Stephen and Nancy McLaughlin; sister Alice McLaughlin Curtis; daughter and son-in-law, Susan and Joshua Citrak; son and daughter-in-law, Patrick and Michalle McLaughlin; daughter, Evelyn, and his “bonus child,” Dave, who took Riley’s last name and remained a life-long friend. Riley also leaves four grandchildren who filled his heart with joy.
