English teacher got students to read in innovative ways

As a veteran English teacher, Evelyn O. Ryan knew how to get students, particularly middle school students, to read: She encouraged them to bring in whatever interested them, even comic books.

"She was not above using comic books in her classroom," says her daughter, Elizabeth Ryan MacDonagh, of Edina, Minn. "It really helped with the boys. She even encouraged them to bring in car magazines."

Mrs. Ryan worked for more than 20 years for Prospect Heights Elementary District 23, including working as an English teacher, district library coordinator and ultimately assistant principal at MacArthur Junior High School in Prospect Heights. She retired in 1991.

Colleagues now are joining with family members in mourning her passing. She died Dec. 1 after a short battle with cancer. The former 20-year Mount Prospect resident and 15-year Wheeling resident, most recently of Edina, Minn., was 85.

Practical wisdom, as well as years of experience, took Mrs. Ryan's career from the classroom to administration. She began first as library coordinator for the district, overseeing the libraries at MacArthur, as well as the elementary schools in the district, including Besty Ross, Eisenhower and Sullivan.

The early 1970s was a pivotal time for school libraries, family members said, when they moved from small book-filled rooms to become library media centers.

"We always thought it was kind of ironic that my mother had come from this small, South Dakota town, and here she was on the cutting edge of library technology," her daughter adds. "But it was a really exciting time for her."

At the same time, Mrs Ryan also earned her master's degree, focusing first on library science, before ultimately earning it in administration at Northern Illinois University.

With her degree, Mrs. Ryan was tapped to serve as assistant principal at MacArthur, where she worked with faculty members in planning, as well as in curriculum development, and even student discipline.

"Students trusted her, and didn't want to let her down," says her first secretary, Donna Arkenberg. "Even when she had to discipline them, she was able to teach them good life lessons, and she didn't have to be too tough on them."

Throughout her career, which had started in Minnesota schools before she and her husband, Robert, moved to Chicago's Northwest suburbs, Mrs. Ryan loved to work with middle school students.

"They were at an age when the world had begun to open up to them," her daughter says. "They were really starting to explore the world, and she thought they were fun and interesting to be around."

Besides her daughter, Mrs. Ryan is survived by her twin granddaughters, Niamh and Siobhan, and son-in-law, Peter MacDonagh, and many nieces and nephews.

Services have been held.