Harry E. Riser

Harry Riser, a 1946 graduate of Lincoln High School, has pursued a long career in actuarial consulting and devoted himself to the arts. Beginning in his youth he also started to build a reputation as world-renowned magician.

In the consulting business Riser concentrated on actuarial science and the design and management of pension and welfare plans. This work resulted in his becoming a vice-president of the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company and manager of its Chicago office. In later years he was senior vice-president and a member of the executive committee of the Nyhart Company, the largest actuarial consulting firm in Indiana.

Aside from insurance, Riser’s other business responsibilities focused on Vincennes. During the 1970s he was a director and vice-president of the Dixie Orchard Company. Since 1970 he has been a director and president of Cash-Riser Incorporated, an organization that manages investments and farmland in the Vincennes area.

A dedicated supporter of the arts, for more than 30 years Riser has been a director of the Hoosier Art Salon, a 79-year-old non-profit organization that benefits Indiana artists. He also served four years as president of the organization, a responsibility that required managing an Indianapolis art gallery and presenting the Annual Hoosier Art Salon Show. This nationally recognized event presents 200 paintings each year.

Riser’s deep, resonant voice is perfect for another volunteer enterprise. Since 1991 he has been the voice of a weekly show on public radio station WICR in Indianapolis, which currently has a weekly peak audience of 49,000 listeners. The program is devoted to the playing and discussion of jazz music. Counting broadcast and prep time, Riser’s dedication to the show measures in thousands of hours over 12 years.

Like magic, eight-year-old Harry Riser first was attracted to an avocation by another amateur magician, the Reverend Ray Montgomery, pastor of the First Christian Church in Vincennes. Riser has studied conjuring as a life-long project and has invented and published hundreds of original magic tricks. Since 1985 he has written a monthly column, "The Riser Repertoire," for the Society of American Magicians, each column explaining a never before known magic trick. These presentations, earning rave reviews, have been compiled into a book published in 1997. A second book is scheduled for release in 2004.

Many honors and awards have been accorded to Riser in the field of magic. He also is sought to demonstrate his skills at magician symposiums. These meetings have been held in more than a dozen U.S. cities and in England and France as fellow magicians assemble to witness Riser’s inventiveness.

After graduation from Lincoln, Riser attended Indiana University and earned a bachelor’s degree in 1950. While in high school he was president of his senior class, president of Hi-Y, and a member of Lincoln Play Shop and National Honor Society. He has been married more than 50 years to a Lincoln classmate, Margaret Shroyer. They have a son and a daughter.