Born in Seattle, Washington to Louisa Zenaide (née Lavoy) and Julian Guy Rivers,[3] Rivers attended grammar school in Flat, Alaska, and Franklin High School in Seattle.

Rivers was a lifelong civil servant, working in a number of public positions throughout his life.

[7] In 1957 and 1958, Rivers was a United States Representative-elect under the Alaska-Tennessee Plan in Washington, D.C., on a provisional basis, pending statehood.

Upon the admission of Alaska as a State into the Union, he was elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-sixth and to the three succeeding Congresses and served from January 3, 1959 until December 30, 1966.

[8] He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the Ninetieth Congress in 1966, resigning days before the end of his term.