Longtime Barrington library board president dies
Colleagues of Richard Ryan say his legacy at the Barrington Area Library can be felt "in every part of the building and its grounds."
The Barrington resident, who served as president of the library board for 25 years, died Monday. He was 92.
Ryan served on the library board for more than 40 years, with his last six-year term ending in 2015. In 2011, one year after he stepped down as president, the board gave Ryan the honorary title of president emeritus.
At the time, board president Don Minner praised Ryan for his persistence in seeing projects through to completion, his tirelessness in advocating for the library and his openness to new ideas.
"Richard J. Ryan's decades of work on behalf of the Barrington Area Library can be seen and felt in every part of the building and its grounds," Minner said, "and experienced in all of its collections and services."
Ryan was born in Chicago and earned an electrical engineering degree from the Illinois Institute of Chicago. He worked in the field for 25 years and among his accomplishments, he helped advance night vision technology, which was used widely during the Vietnam conflict.
In 1974, Ryan opened his own management consulting firm. That same year, he was elected to the Barrington Area Library board of trustees, after successfully leading a referendum campaign to build a new library.
Seeing the library move from its small location on Hough Street to its new campus on Northwest Highway in 1978 was a thrill for Ryan, but it was just the first of several construction projects he oversaw.
As president, Ryan unveiled the library's 31,000-square-foot addition and renovation in 1991, a young adult multimedia center in 2002, and he served on the board that oversaw the complete renovation in 2013-2014.
"All of his children have moved out of state, but whenever we returned, our stay was never complete without a visit to the library to see the latest renovation or offering," says his son, Greg, of Plymouth, Michigan.
Ryan was a man of many interests. He had his private pilot's license and later in life he took up long distance cycling. As a member of the Wheeling Wheelmen, he completed several century (100-mile) bike rides in his 50s and 60s, his children say.
However, reading and lifelong learning remained his passion.
"He was a voracious reader," Greg Ryan says, "and never without a stack of books alongside his leather reading chair."
Library officials say Ryan was a regular patron, visiting the library every week and he always was on hand to recognize staff service anniversary awards.
"We are profoundly grateful to him for the legacy of his decades of volunteer service," says Jesse Henning, executive director of the library.
Ryan was preceded in death by his wife, Ruth. Besides Greg, Ryan is survived by his children Richard (Louann) Ryan II of Littleton, Colorado, and DeEtte Kauffman of Newark, Delaware, as well as nine grandchildren and five great grandchildren.
Visitation will take place from noon to 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 4, before a 1 p.m. funeral service, both at Davenport Family Funeral Home, located at 149 W. Main St. in Barrington.