Alan Ryff

Alan James Ryff, 79, of St. Claire Shores and Scio Township died, with his loved ones at his side, on October 9, after battling an aggressive pancreatic cancer.
Alan was born to Rosalie and Anthony Stanley Ryff on the last hot day in July in 1946. Three years later his younger sister, Gail, was born. Were you to ask Alan to characterize his developmental years, he would tell you that he grew up like a weed. His parents paid little attention to him. However, an adolescent with exceptional curiosity and independence learned from having to fend for himself, might just choose to hitchhike to the Upper Peninsula for boreal bird species with nothing but the clothes on his back. A couple of years later he might also hitchhike hundreds of miles to show up, uninvited but appreciated, to join a research study in Louisiana and hunt for the ivory-billed woodpecker.
Alan made decisions early in his life to travel to all of the places around the world he wanted to experience and do all of the things that were of interest to him. He believed he should expend his energy while he was young and was able to do so. And so, he did. However, this should not connote haphazard conditions. While learning all he could about the natural world, he also collected and read an amazing number, literally hundreds, of books from classics to recent publications on the natural world. He was a true scholar and published his own work nationally. He also produced some arresting photos of birds and other wildlife with pertinent remarks.