Guido Carl Leo Riemer was born in Sax Weimer, Germany on August 27, 1873 and came to America with his family in 1882. He prepped at the Clarion State Normal School and the Bucknell Academy before earning his BA and MA degrees at Bucknell University, and then in 1900 received a second MA from Harvard University. Riemer later received his Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of Leipzig in Germany, and from 1901-1918 served as a professor of German at Bucknell. Before his term as principal of the Bloomsburg State Normal School (BSNS) Riemer was an official in the Department of Public Instruction at Harrisburg.

During his term at BSNS Riemer developed new rules and regulations for students living outside the dormitories. But his biggest accomplishment as principal was in 1926 when the Board of Trustees accepted Riemer's recommendation to change the normal school into an institution designed to prepare teachers for the public schools of Pennsylvania. On June 4, 1926 Bloomsburg was given the privilege to grant degrees and the school's name was formally changed to State Teachers College at Bloomsburg in May of 1927.  After these accomplishments Riemer resigned his job as principal the following month.

Dr. Riemer continued to work in the Pennsylvania State Education System after leaving Bloomsburg. He was principal and then president of Clarion State Teachers College from 1928 to 1937, and a professor of speech at Kutztown from 1937 until his retirement in 1943. He remained there until 1950, when he and his wife went to Shaker Heights, Ohio to live with their son.  Dr. Riemer died there on March 13, 1953 at the age of 79.