(relaxing marimba music) - [Voiceover] Funding for this program is provided by the Riley Foundation in memory of George F. Riley.

(tribal drums and instrumental music) As a leader in the tech industry, George Riley had a vision for connecting people.

His pioneering work in network and wireless technology, established him as one of the founders of the connected world we live in today.

But it was his work as a philanthropist where George made an even bigger connection, by giving back in countless ways during his lifetime.

There's the Riley Skate Park in Farmington Hills, the Riley Wilderness Camps for kids in Chelsea, the preservation of a military plane at the Yankee Air Museum, and the construction of the Riley Broadcast Center at Detroit Public TV, all helping to enhance recreational and cultural experiences in Michigan.

When George passed away in 2018, his friend and business partner, Len Kruszewski, was named to oversee the Riley estate and to carry on George's vision in charitable giving and community support.

In addition to their business connection, George and Leonard were also avid sportsmen who shared a passion for the out of doors.

Over the years, George had built up a vast wildlife collection and trusted Leonard to find the perfect way to curate that collection, following his death.

Today, the Riley collection tells the story of one man's love of the outdoors, the joy he found in sharing his adventures and encouraging young people to explore and promote conservation for future generations.

This is the story about how the Riley Foundation came together with a team at Ferris State University to carry on George's legacy, to share his experiences and preserve his vision for educating young people about our natural world.

And true to form, George Riley is still connecting people even after he has passed on.

(cheerful music) - As an individual, George was probably one of the kindest gentlemen.

One of the largest things that I think George brought with his personality was that as a person, he treated everybody equally, and he was successful in business and he was successful life and he wanted to share those things.

And he also grew up amongst the farmlands.

And so hunting was a way of life and it was also a way of providing food for the family.

His father taught him those things and, certainly he learned the values of that, not only as a child in his relationship with his dad, but also the environment and things that are related to other things that are important as well.

- It was just getting out the air, you know, getting up in the morning, the sunrises, the sunsets, the birds.

I mean, you listen to, you just sit back and close your eyes and can listen to the birds.

- [Leonard] It was about the whole overall experience and the learnings you get from different cultures and places.

And certainly the friends you bring with you or the friends you leave with because you meet new people along the way.

The collection that George put together was from almost 30 years of his outdoor life.

And he knew that he had something real special.

- George Riley's collection is a really good representation of species from around the world.

It says that he was quite passionate.

It was a nice display.

Really.

It was a really nice display well laid out, quite well thought out.

- [Leonard] He knew it had a value to pass on.

He had clearly created it as estate planning, his wishes of what he wanted his collection to do in his afterlife and one of them then obviously was to find a home to where it could be be used for education purposes or for conservation work and nature.

- Ferris State University received a request from the George Riley estate, wondering if we would be interested in this relatively large animal specimen and estate that George Riley was looking for a home for.

And it fit the mission of our current facility which had been called the Card Wildlife Education Center.

As the director of the Card/Riley Wildlife Center it was my responsibility to draft this proposal, outlining the ways in which we would use this collection.

- But it was clear that they had a passion, of course the other thing, the fact that they did have an existing museum, so they already had a leg up on many of the other respondents, and then also they were very pro outdoor, pro hunting, pro education and they had a good story that they were spreading already.

- George' life and his work in collecting was very similar to the gift that we had received earlier from Roger Card.

Their lifestyles are very similar in that they were outdoorsmen and conservationists.

- He was a true conservationist and what I mean by that is that he knew that his activities and the hunting was a way to give back.

And it was done in a very ethical and sportsmanlike manner.

- The specimens that were in the Card Center from its previous years and now the new specimens that are coming to the Card/Riley Center, they help in promoting conservation simply because hunters have always been a large component of the conservation organization.

- When we are practicing legal hunting and we're following rules and guidelines that are established, we're actually helping the environment.

We're actually helping support healthy populations.

And so both Roger and George have participated lifelong in legal hunting practices and in supporting conservation for communities around the world.

- The more technological we've gotten, the more digital we've gone, the less people are actually engaged with nature and the environment.

And when you can have an experience, direct personal experience with something like a world-class, trophy-sized animal from somewhere around the world that you've never been, that might inspire learning and caring, they might actually become the next advocate that is actually helping to keep our North American and global ecosystems into a healthy, beautiful conserved state.

- Being up close and personal with those animals, you're face-to-face with those animals, you know maybe you are moved then to protect those animals, protect those habitats, those cultures that surround those animals in their native lands.

- And I've seen this ability to let this donation go to them as a way to enhance what they've already started, take it to another level and, you know, just, it came out to be the perfect fit and certainly enjoy the relationship that we're having with them and look forward to the museum in its final phases, so hopefully it continues to grow over the years.

- With George's collection onsite, Ferris State began renovations on the existing facility that would now become the Card/Riley Center.

Re-imagining its big game room and designing new wildlife displays to replicate habitats to exact specifications.

Let's return now to see how designers are creating innovative displays on flora and fauna and showcasing animals that few of us will ever see in the wild.

(calming music) - We are a facility that houses over 200 wildlife specimen from over 52 countries.

- There's not many universities that have such a thing.

And all those things that were donated to Ferris State, I think that's gonna be something that, whether you're a child, or an adult is things you're nowhere gonna see in one place.

- It's very unique to be able to see an animal that is not from your region, especially as up close and personal as you can get here in our center.

If you're not able to travel, you're not able to see some of these really fantastic creatures.

And it's nice to be able to talk about different regions of the world.

- Well, they're certainly going to be wowed and in awe.

They're certainly gonna have a lot of educational experience about nature or wildlife.

- [Carrie Weis] We try and really focus on nature and wildlife conservation.

And so, you can see the animals in their natural habitats.

We can talk about different types of habitat in different parts of the world.

We do have a beautiful Michigan room and that's really great for our local citizen scientists and local school children to learn more about, but to also be able to see animals from all around the world is really, I think, a unique gift.

We have already started bringing in the Riley collection and incorporating it with some of our current exhibits, but we also have designed new habitat displays that are being built by a company called, Wild Rooms.

- Well, Wild Rooms is kind of a lifestyle to reality company.

Basically, our primary business is creating big game trophy rooms for other conservationists, hunters - They've been wonderful.

We worked together right from the very beginning.

They help decide which specimen are going to fit best within the habitat that they're creating.

We have some really exciting new exhibits design.

George had specimen that we had not already had in our facility.

So, we have new specimen coming in that our visitors have never seen before.

But he also has provided specimen from unique areas that Roger Card had not visited either.

Probably the largest, both physically and just in terms of excitement, is called a giant eland.

And it's one of the world's largest antelope.

- [Randy Mitchell] If you look at the giant eland's feet you'll see a blue duiker, which is the size of a house cat.

And they're both antelope.

- We have an Arctic area that will feature a walrus and a polar bear and a grizzly bear, lots of Arctic animals.

One of the exhibits I think I'm most excited about is the oceans room, or the marine habitat.

And that will include coral formations and ocean fish.

But we also have a gorgeous display with a leopard within its habitat, that is on the hunt, so to speak.

So, there are antelope that are leaping away from him.

That's a perfect example that we can use when we're talking about predator versus prey.

We like to talk about the different types of animals that are predatory animals and some that are prey animals and what are the differences between the two.

And so, this is a perfect moment that will exhibit, or illustrate when we're talking to children about those parts of nature.

- And you just gain (smacking lips) a love and respect for not just the animal, but for the wilderness itself and the wildlife as a whole.

In its entirety.

And that will then inspire you to be more careful, or cautious when you're out in the wild.

- Wild Rooms does a lot of their own research.

So they understand the habitat in which the particular specimen need to go into.

They understand the type of rock formation, the types of plants that might be found within that habitat.

And so they're doing a lot of that research and they're providing as accurate of information as possible when it comes to all of the flora within a habitat.

- [Randy Mitchell] We have one exhibit here that's, "Deer of the world."

Instead of making a different exhibit for each species you make an exhibit of just deer.

You could look at a South American brocket deer that's the size of a small dog.

I mean, they weigh 18 pounds and standing next to a Scottish stag that weighs five, 600 pounds.

So that's really nice in itself, but ultimately they had a look, or a design in mind.

And then, as we talk about it then things start forming and we get the design laid out and then we put the sceneries together.

Also a very fulfilling project.

We just have fun and enjoy trying to create something that other people will walk in and just, either they're speechless, or they're just in awe.

- And it is an opportunity to learn about these animals in a real way because you're just right up next to them.

- They're not used to having an experience where they're so close to the specimen.

If you visit a natural history museum, everything's usually behind glass and distanced.

At the Card/Riley Center you can get really close.

- [Randy Mitchell] And you start breaking the animals down by components on each animal.

And it's really unique as to why the animals exist in the trains in the ecosystems that they exist in and how they can exist in those areas.

Every animal has a reason for the length of its hair, the thickness of its hair, what type of a weaponry it has, how it establishes itself.

how they support a breeding population.

Their feet.

You wouldn't think of it, but ibex have two different types of material in their feet.

One is to grip rocks and the other one is to bite into rocks.

And they're both of them side by side, on the bottom on their feet.

- The little elementary school kids that would come and they could stare eye-to-eye with a full male lion, or look at a kangaroo and realize the kangaroo is taller than them.

Those are are pretty impactful things.

- [Randy Mitchell] Every scene in here has little things hidden in it.

May not be the animal.

It could be an animal, it could be a plant, it could be a soil type, it could be most anything.

But you'll find it eventually.

- We also have a large collection of art that George Riley has provided.

And that's a unique new gift for us.

It's really nice to see two dimensional and three dimensional pieces of art that also will be part of this new collection.

- When this is all said and done, there is nothing like this in Michigan.

At some point when we talk about Ferris State, this might become one of Michigan's destinations.

(calming piano music) - Thanks to the partnership with Ferris State University, George's collection will serve to educate future generations at the Card/Riley Center.

And now, George Riley's generosity will go even further.

As the proceeds from his estate will be used to sustain the Card/Riley Center's mission through educational outreach and programs to engage the community in conservation.

And other programs are being planned including field trips for local schools and programs to promote the preservation of natural resources and a deeper appreciation for wildlife in Michigan and worldwide.

(upbeat music) - George had the foresight to know that when you donate objects to a museum, it also requires funding.

- A major portion of the gift was his estate home as well, in Farmington Hills.

Which became a gift to Ferris State, which they eventually sold.

And that money was to be allocated towards this museum for the renovations, to accommodate the new additions to the museum as well as, obviously, the ongoing operations of the museum itself.

- The funds from that estate has helped establish an endowment.

That endowment is going to provide funds into the future that will provide field trips for local school children, conservation and educational programs, as well as supporting some of our Ferris students who work in the Card Center as docents.

- The gift that Riley gave Ferris State is very generous and is as an opportunity for the university to do more with education and outreach.

- We're working to try to figure out how to engage students bring new students to campus and do more outreach.

And so this new collection that Mr. Riley has donated through his estate to us, it really brings us from just having the wildlife biology and the wildlife, to really moving toward the conservation biology in that education approach which really fits perfectly with what we do as an institution and what I do as an academic.

- We have a lot of really wonderful faculty and students already on our campus doing critical conservation work.

And we have lots of local organizations that are working to make our environment as healthy as possible.

And so these funds will support programs that will continue to educate everyone, youth, and adults and hopefully make them more aware of their surroundings and be interested in participating on a personal level.

- These gifts are gonna be key because the endowment is gonna allow us to do something we haven't done in a few years, which is have the funds to bring more people in and to train more educated folks that can then engage the public in what really matters.

Which is how do these animals live in their habitats?

How do they interact with people?

Why would people interact with them, including hunting them?

And what can we do to make sure that these living organisms and populations are still around for generations to come?

- Some of these funds will go towards granting programs.

One of the first grants that has already been awarded is with Dr. Scott Heron and he's going to be bringing his biology students into the facility and they are going to work on identifying the plants in our facility.

- That Michigan room has Michigan-specific animals and they're put into a beautiful diorama of habitat that includes plants and animals in the landscape.

And so in this case, I'm gonna work on having my students in our plants and fungi class, work to identify the plants that are in there so that we better have an understanding of the plants that are in these habitats that are key to other wildlife of Michigan and then better represent things when the plants maybe aren't representative of what's in Michigan.

- I also see the George Riley gift being helpful with strengthening partnerships with those who have natural resources conservation and education as part of their mission.

I think there are some very exciting possibilities that could happen to benefit a lot of people and the environment as the center potentially gets more involved in community projects and education initiatives.

- We offer educational programs such as scout badges and conservation projects for our community.

We like to bring in our local school children for field trips.

And we can talk with them about habitat, evolution, the differences between predator and prey and all of these wonderful things that they don't get in their own classrooms.

- In the course I teach we focus on local flora and fauna.

So we spend the most time on those local animals in the museum.

And also, we try to make comparisons then between the exotic animals on display there and our local ones.

- As part of this donation we've been able to redesign all of our interpretive materials.

And it has allowed us to include a new space in the facility that is showcasing what our faculty, our students and our community are doing as far as conservation efforts.

Some of our outreach programs include bringing children into the facility, but we also get out into the community.

One of my favorite has been a monarch butterfly program and we ended up studying in the classroom, the monarch.

And then we got all of the children out into a public space here in Big Rapids and we had them plant over 2000 pollinator plants.

And then we actively participated in trying to help the species.

And so those are the types of programs that we're looking forward to continuing.

- Well, I hope when people come through, they take out of here that there's a lot more animals in the world than what they realized.

Maybe they'll start looking things up.

What other animals are out in the world and just enjoyment.

You know, you can come through here.

It's quiet, peaceful.

- I'm really hoping to inspire activism.

I'm hoping to have our visitors walk away with a deeper appreciation for nature and wildlife.

And we're offering information.

Ways in which they can be proactive.

And that's really exciting to me.

To be able to inspire the next group to care about the environment.

- And just take away the thought that there's five different caribou species right here.

And you can't go to one place in the world and see all five of them other than right here.

- Ferris really appreciates this gift for a number of reasons.

First of all, it supports what we've already established.

We have this really nice facility.

And so his gift really kind of speaks towards the fact that we are on the right track as far as wildlife and conservation efforts.

- I think he'd be happy with the way things are turning out here.

The amount of opportunity is here for groups of people.

I know that they have groups of young kids will be coming through here.

They'll start seeing and getting acquainted with some of these animals.

Maybe it'll spark an interest in some of them and they'll go on to be future conservationists.

- Ferris State has a strong connection with George even though they never met, but they feel as part of him.

So that makes me feel good.

(rhythmic melancholic music) - Through the partnership with Ferris State University, George Riley's legacy will live on.

Displayed in the exhibit halls that capture his outdoor adventures in Michigan, across the country and throughout the world.

The mission at Ferris State is to be an educational resource for its students and for the public at large, to teach the importance of conservation, connecting people to nature and the great outdoors.

Another connection that would make George Riley very proud.

(uplifting music) (calming music) - [Voiceover] Funding for this program is provided by the Riley foundation in Memory of Georgia F. Riley.

(piano music)