Daniel J. Ryan, Sr., on January 25, 2013, of Washington Twp. Age 77. Beloved husband of Margaret A. (nee Murphy). Devoted father of Dan, Jr. (Gillian), John, Paul (Cynthia). and step-father of Laurinda Rubin, Suzanne White, Myron White, Michelle Reed and Lt. Lawrence White. Loving grandfather of Andrew, Emily and step-grandfather of Dylan, Noah, Christina, Steven, Byron, Kyriea, Dalton, Lawson, Isabella, Jake and Josh. Proud great-grandfather of Natalie and McKenzie. Dear brother of William (Linda).

Dan Ryan was born in Brooklyn New York on the 27th of March, 1935. His mother Caroline Ryan (nee Young) was 33 years old and his father, also named Daniel, was a 59 year old mail carrier. All their forebears had immigrated from Ireland. Dan had a younger brother Billy and they had three older half-brothers from their father’s first marriage: Robert, Herbert, and Edward.

Dan’s father died when he was seven, and he and brother Billy grew up during the war and immediate post-WWII years. He attended Brooklyn Technical High School, an experience that shaped him mightily. After graduating in 1953 he earned a place at the Georgia Institute of Technology where he was a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity and studied chemical engineering in a “coop” program where semesters of study alternated with semesters of job placement.

Around that same time a bright young woman whose father did not approve of spending money on education for women graduated from Notre Dame High School in Delaware County, PA. She had done well in high school chemistry and received a job offer from a chemical company in Marcus Hook, PA called American Viscose Corporation.

One day in, probably, 1955, there was a chemical spill in a storage room. A lab technician and a recently hired college coop intern were charged with the cleanup. She was Mary; he was Dan. They were married on 13 September 1958.

He finished his Bachelors of Science in chemical engineering and accepted a full time job at American Viscose and they moved first to Claymont, DE and then back to Chester where Mary had grown up. During the first years of marriage he still had military obligations associated with ROTC program that had helped pay for College, and first son, Dan, junior, was born while he was in training in 1959. He was later honorably discharged as a first lieutenant. He was home for the arrival of his second son, John, in 1961 and then all four of them welcomed the third of the Ryan boys, Paul, in 1964.

The mid-60s were marked by a series of promotions at work which had then become the FMC Corporation, an unsuccessful run for school board in Chester, PA, multiple stints as a cubmaster (renowned for helping neighborhood boys with their pinewood derbyprojects), scoutmaster, church council member and a long tenure as a lay lecter at St. Robert’s Catholic Church (now St. Kathleen Drexel) in Chester. He and Mary were active in the Cursillo movement and the Cardinal’s Commission on Human Rights in the early 1970s. Throughout his life he held leadership positions in various voluntary organizations ranging from home and school to homeowners associations.

He was an avid shopworker/do-it-yourself type long before this was trendy. Before the kids could even walk there was an 8’ by 12’ HO train platform in the basement. The Ryan house on Parkway Avenue in Chester had many features – remodelled kitchen, rebuilt porches, radiator covers, and other built-ins – that were the fruits of these labors. Famously, every project stopped just short of the final finishing detail, a habit all three of his sons appear to have inherited.

When the plant in Marcus Hook closed in the 1970s Dan career-transitioned into sales-engineer for TextronCorporation. He traveled up and down the eastern seaboard designing and selling metal filtration products. His sales activity was constantly supplemented by entreprenuerial ventures – he designed and supervised the fabrication of a fluidizer apparatus for railroad hopper cars and enrolled the neighbors in the sewing of filter bags that he would supply to industrial customers.

After moving from Chester to West Chester in the mid 1980s he joined Mary’s hobby of building doll house furniture and they established “Dan and Mary’s Dollhouses, Inc.” He built dozens of custom doll houses and halloween haunted houses that they sold at street fairs and flea markets.

Dan worked the last years of his careers at Keystone Industries in Cherry Hill, NJ, as a consultant plant engineer, cum general problem solver. He was always proud of the machines and buildings he’d had a hand in procuring, designing, or building.

His first wife Mary died in 2001.

In October 2005 he was thrilled to marry the former Margaret White (nee Murphy) of Turnersville, NJ. Together they enjoyed dance lessons, traveling up and down the east coast and back and forth across the country visiting relatives and historic sites, and cruising on the seas.

Dan will be missed by his wife Margaret, sons Dan Jr. (Gillian Hadfield), John, and Paul (Cindy); brother William (Linda), step children Laurinda Rubin, Suzanne White, Michelle Reed, and Lt. Lawrence White; grandchildren Andrew Ryan and Emily Ryan; eleven step grandchildren: Byron, Dalton, Dylan, Isabella, Jake, Josh, Kyriea, Lawson, Mckenzie, Natalie, Noah, and Tina; and two step greatgrandchildren.

Relatives and friends are invited to attend his viewing Tuesday January 29, 2013, 8:30 – 10:15 a.m. at the Egizi Funeral Home, 119 Ganttown Road, Turnersville, NJ 08012 Mass of Christian Burial 11:00 a.m. at SS. Peter & Paul Church, Washington Twp. Interment private.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Daniel’s memory may be made to Brooklyn Technical High School, 29 Fort Greene Place, Brooklyn, NY 11217. Condolences can be shared with the family at www.egizifuneral.com.

“A Life Well Lived
Is Worth Remembering”