Leonard Eames Ryan

1930 - 2021
Leonard Eames Ryan, 91, of Brooklyn Heights, New York, died of complications related to pneumonia on August 22, 2021 at NYU Langone Tisch Hospital, Manhattan. He was born on July 8, 1930 in Albion, NY to Harriet Fitts Ryan, newspaper columnist and author, and Chief Judge Bernard Ryan of the New York State Court of Claims. He was the last survivor of his parents' four sons. His siblings were Hewitt Fitts Ryan, M.D., Bernard Ryan, Jr., and Congressman William Fitts Ryan.



He was a graduate of Kent School ('48), University of Pennsylvania ('54), and New York University School of Law ('62). At Penn, he was a member of Delta Phi (St. Elmo). During a hiatus from college he learned surveying at the US Steel Fairless Works in Morrisville, PA; he later applied these skills in Wildwood Crest, NJ, a neighboring town to his favorite seashore resort of Cape May, NJ, which he visited annually for many years beginning with his college days and extending to his last visit in September 2020.



His career focused on journalism, civil justice and human rights. As a reporter for The Associated Press and The New York Times, he covered government, the courts and national and international leaders. He obtained his law degree while working the overnight shift at the AP. He was fond of recalling covering former President Harry S. Truman's early morning walks in Manhattan and of suggesting a photo of Truman and his grandchildren looking through an apartment window, which was widely published. Subsequently, he worked in the U.S. Department of Justice in enforcement of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, principally in Southern states. Later, as a program officer in the Ford Foundation, he was responsible for program development in government and law, including creation of the Native American Rights Fund. He played key roles in funding the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Women's Law Fund, the National Office for Rights of the Indigent, the Commission on Correctional Facilities and Services of the American Bar Association, and the American Justice Institute. At the time of his retirement, he was an administrative law judge for the Social Security Administration.



Leonard was an avid athlete – enthusiastic tennis player, bicycle rider, skier and ocean swimmer and body surfer. One of his favorite recollections was having "taken a set off" Lew Hoad, the International Tennis Hall of Fame player, at his Campo de Tenis in Fuengirola, Spain.



A life-long Democrat from a politically active family on both sides, he treasured a letter sent by then New York State governor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, to his father on the occasion of Leonard's birth congratulating him on a new Democratic voter.



He is survived by his wife of 48 years, Ann Allen-Ryan, son Thomas Eames Allen-Ryan and his wife Olivia, granddaughters Emma Rose and Lily James, and many nieces and nephews and their families.