Frederick Joseph Ryan -

Born December 14, 1921, Boston, MA. His father was John Francis Ryan, a prominent New England attorney.

Their lineage to Ireland goes back 2 Generations to John Ryan, who immigrated to Boston in 1874 form the townland of Inchinsquillib,Village of Cappawhite, County Tipperary.

John Ryan's son, William Ryan was father to John Francis Ryan and grandfather to Frederick Joseph Ryan.

Frederick Joseph Ryan was a bomber pilot and distinguished military hero. In W.W.II he was a leader of the elite "Snoopers" bomb squadron, which flew late night missions in radio silence with B-24's that were painted black without any markings. Ryan commanded many highly dangerous missions over heavily armed Japanese military installations. Incidentally, Ryan and his
squadron were scheduled to fly an extremely dangerous mission over a Japanese shipyard from which it was not expected that he would return because all previous bombing missions over the target had been shot down.

Shortly before they were to depart for the target, the mission was called off from military command in Washington, because of a top secret project. It turned out the project was the dropping of the Atom bomb over Hiroshima.   Ryan and his squadron would have lost their lives were it not for the Atomic bomb!

Following the war, Ryan became one of the Commander pilots in the elite new Strategic Air Command. He set the record (which remains unbroken) for the greatest number of hours (approximately 8000 hours) of flight in the B-47 Strategic Bomber.

Ryan later retired and moved to California where he was involved in various political and philanthropic activities. He died on May 5, 1993.

Frederick Joseph Ryan, Jr.

He is the son of  Frederick Joseph Ryan, born April 12, 1955 in Tampa, Florida.

He was a prominent lawyer in Los Angeles, before being appointed as Assistant of the President of the United States. He was one of the youngest persons ever to serve at the highest level of the White House Staff. For both of Ronald Reagan's terms in office, Ryan was a major player in the activities of the Administration. On numerous occasions he represented the United States in meetings with world leaders including Mikhail Gorbabachev, Margaret Thatcher, Mother Theresa, Boris Yeltsin, and numerous others. For his outstanding contributions, he was awarded the Presidential Citation for Private Sector Initiative by Ronald Reagan. Ryan also received several other medals and honors form other countries including France, Italy, Morocco and was granted a personal Coat of Arms from the Government of Ireland.

Ryan continued with former President Reagan as Chief of Staff until 1995. He is now back in Washington, DC serving as Vice Chairman of Allbritton Communications Company which owns and operates television stations.

Ryan presently serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation. He wrote a very popular book, which I have, called Ronald Reagan: The Wisdom and Humor of the Great Communicator. It was published in 1995 by Harper Collins and I understand it has recently been re-released. I also know that Ronald Reagan praises Fred Ryan in Reagan's biography, which I also have, entitled An American Life.