Writer and editor George E. Ryan (1925-2000) was a Massachusetts native, Boston College alum, and US Navy veteran. He attended and graduated from Boston College High School, served in the US Navy during World War II, and earned a BA (1951) and MA in English (1953) from Boston College. Ryan and his wife, Caroline, and their six children (Frederick, David, Caroline, Patricia, Colleen, and Caitlin) resided in Scituate beginning in 1959. He was an active member of the Boston Press Club, the Irish-American Cultural Institute, the Scituate Historical Society, the Bostonian Society, the Boston Athenaeum, the Thoreau Society, and the Eire Society of Boston.

Ryan's research interests primarily concerned the history of Boston, Irish-Americans, Catholicism, and the intersection of the three. He worked as an editor and writer for The Pilot, the oldest Catholic weekly newspaper in the United States, from 1952 to 1990. He was also the director of the Boston Archdiocesan News Bureau and editor of the Eire Society of Boston’s Bulletin. His byline appeared in a wide range of journals, particularly those covering Irish heritage, Catholicism, and stamp collecting. He also published a number of longer works, including Botolph of Boston, Figures in our Catholic history: brief, illustrated biographies of men and women who helped write the story of Boston, and A life of bandmaster Richard Willis, first teacher of music at West Point.

George E. Ryan died September 19, 2000, at South Shore Hospital, Weymouth, Massachusetts.

Sources:

Ryan, George E. Botolph of Boston. North Quincy, MA: Christopher Publishing House, 1971.

"Richard Willis, page proofs, illustrations, and 'About the Author'", Box 2, Folder 94, George E. Ryan papers, MS.2002.033, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.