Carleton Lawrence Riley, 84, Holy Family College history teacher

A MAN WHO could read 15,000 books, give or take a few hundred, was a man to be reckoned with.

And Larry Riley was that man. But how to do the reckoning?

He was a man whose spiritual journey took him to a Trappist monastery, probably the strictist order in the Roman Catholic Church, yet he was also a man who enjoyed handicapping race horses and cheering on the steeds at Philadelphia Park and the old Garden State track.

He earned a Ph.D with a dissertation on the Bolshevik show trials in the Soviet Union instigated by Joseph Stalin in the 1930s to get rid of his rivals.

To do the research, he taught himself to read Russian.

When the CIA got a look at his dissertation, agents tried to get him to join up. He, of course, refused.

Carleton Lawrence Riley Jr., known to family and friends as Larry, died Sunday after he broke his hip in a fall and his health deteriorated. He was 84 and lived in West Philadelphia.

He taught ancient and modern history for 20 years at Holy Family University in Philadelphia.

Larry attended Mount Saint Alphonus Seminary in Esopus, N.Y. After graduation, he became one of the founding brothers of Holy Cross monastery and spent the next few years as a Trappist monk in rural Virginia.

He and his fellow monks built the monastery out of the existing stables while tending to some 1,000 acres of land and 1,000 head of cattle. He also manned the bee hives.

After a few years, he became discouraged with the Trappist life - too much work and not enough spiritual enlightenment.

He went on to Fordham University where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in history and where in 1974 he wrote his dissertation on the Bolshevik trials.

Larry was fascinated by Russia and was profoundly moved when the notorious Berlin Wall came down in 1990, and the Soviet Union broke up in 1991.

Once, while lecturing University of Pennsylvania students on the Soviet Union, he urged them to get involved before it was too late in establishing a new world view after the Soviet Union collapse.

"Sooner or later the window will close because you will become middle class, move to the suburbs and become as conservative as I am," he told them. "Your life is going to be more concerned with trivia. You'll get more and more conservative. Now is the time.

"We cannot sit back and watch the world go by. World economic ripples affect us. Whether we want to believe it or not, we are citizens of the world."

Larry taught at a high school in Washington, D.C., and was headmaster of a private school in Charlottesville, Va. He also had railroad porter on his resume.

While working the night shift in the emergency ward of Martha Jefferson Hospital in Charlottesvillle, a dying man was brought in and Larry discovered they shared a birthday.

"It was a revelation to him," said his son, Andrew. "He realized how glad he was to be alive."

In the early '90s, Larry and the late Rick Selvin, a Daily News writer and longtime friend, showed up to audition for the revival of the old game show, You Bet Your Life, hosted by Bill Cosby.

Larry was picked out of 40 would-be contestants. He couldn't understand why. It had to have been his outlandish attire - "iconoclastic shorts and bow tie combo," his family said.

Larry, who was 6-5, was famous for his oversized bow ties. The producers insisted he wear his eccentric attire on the show.

Larry was born to Lillian and Carleton Riley Sr. in a Bronx, N.Y., that was in the grip of the Depression. He and his late sister, Gail, would collect newspapers to be sold to scrap dealers for enough change to pay for a movie.

A favorite occupation was throwing stones at passing freight trains. Railroad workers would return fire with lumps of coal.

Larry met his wife, the former Adrienne Schwartz, at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. They were married in January 1974 and moved to Saratoga, Va., where they were hired as a team that founded Verrazano College, a school dedicated to the humanities.

They lived in a log cabin on Old Rag Mountain in the Blue Ridge range for the next 10 years, then moved to Philadelphia.

He went to work as a history professor at Holy Family University and joined St. Francis de Sales Church.

His book collection was staggering. He insisted he had read all 15,000 volumes in his home, some more than once.

"There were books everywhere," said his son. "They would be on every surface, and in the bathroom. He sometimes would be reading four books at a time."

In his later years, Larry took to writing voluminous missiles to family and friends, including Andrew's son, Jack, now 6, to be opened in the future - "as yearly milestones are reached, ensuring his wisdom, intelligence and heart will remain with those he loves for years to come."

Besides his wife, son and grandson, he is survived by another son, David, and a brother, John Riley.

Services: Memorial Mass 11 a.m. today at St. Francis de Sales Church, 917 S. 47th St. Friends may call at 10 a.m. at the church. Interment will be private.