Leo Joseph Ryan Jr. (May 5, 1925 – November 18, 1978) was an American teacher and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the U.S. Representative from California's 11th congressional district from 1973 until his assassination as part of the Jonestown massacre in 1978.

After the Watts Riots of 1965, Assemblyman Ryan took a job as a substitute school teacher to investigate and document conditions in the area. In 1970, he decided to investigate the conditions of California prisons. While presiding as chairman of the Assembly committee that oversaw prison reform, he used a pseudonym to enter Folsom Prison as an inmate. During his time in Congress, Ryan traveled to Newfoundland to investigate the practice of seal hunting. He was also famous for vocal criticism of the lack of Congressional oversight of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and authored the Hughes–Ryan Amendment, passed in 1974.

Ryan was shot and killed at an airstrip in Guyana in November 1978 while his party was attempting to escape a dangerous situation. He had traveled to Guyana to investigate claims that people were being held against their will at the Peoples Temple Jonestown settlement. Ryan was killed the same day of the mass suicide, which occurred just 11 days after he was re-elected for a fourth term. He was the second sitting member of the U.S. House of Representatives to have been assassinated in office, the first being James M. Hinds in 1868. He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously in 1983.

Ryan was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. Throughout his early life, his family moved frequently through Illinois, Florida, New York, Wisconsin, and Massachusetts. He graduated from Campion Jesuit High School in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, in 1943. He then received V-12 officer training at Bates College and served with the United States Navy from 1943 to 1946 as a submariner.^[7]

Ryan graduated from Nebraska's Creighton University with a B.A. in 1949 and an M.S. in 1951. He served as a teacher, school administrator and South San Francisco city councilman from 1956 to 1962. He taught English at Capuchino High School, and chaperoned the marching band in 1961 to Washington, D.C., to participate in President John F. Kennedy's inaugural parade. Ryan was inspired by Kennedy's call to service in his inaugural address, and decided to run for higher office.

In 1962, Ryan was elected mayor of South San Francisco. He served less than a year as mayor, before taking a seat in the California State Assembly's 27th district, winning his assembly race by a margin of 20,000 votes. He had previously run for the State Assembly's 25th district in 1958, but lost to Republican Louis Francis. Ryan served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1964 and 1968, and he held his Assembly seat through 1972, when he was elected to the United States House of Representatives. He was successively elected three more times to the United States Congress.

U.S. Congresswoman and former California State Senator and Ryan aide Jackie Speier described Ryan's style of investigation as "experiential legislating". After the Watts Riots of 1965, Assemblyman Ryan went to the area and took a job as a substitute school teacher to investigate and document conditions in the area. In 1970, using a pseudonym, Ryan had himself arrested, detained, and strip searched to investigate conditions in the California prison system. He stayed as an inmate for ten days in the Folsom Prison, while presiding as chairman on the Assembly committee that oversaw prison reform.

As a California Assemblyman, Ryan also served as the Chairman of legislative subcommittee hearings and presided over hearings involving his later successor as Congressman, Tom Lantos. Ryan pushed through important educational policies in California and authored what came to be known as the Ryan Act, which established an independent regulatory commission to monitor educational credentialing in the state.

United States Congress.

During his time in Congress, Ryan went to Newfoundland with James Jeffords to investigate the inhumane killing of seals, and he was famous for vocal criticism of the lack of Congressional oversight of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), authoring the Hughes–Ryan Amendment, which would have required extensive CIA notification of Congress about planned covert operations. Congressman Ryan once told Dick Cheney that leaking a state secret was an appropriate way for a member of Congress to block an "ill-conceived operation". Ryan supported Patricia Hearst, and along with Senator S. I. Hayakawa, delivered Hearst's application for a presidential commutation to the Pardon Attorney.

On the 25th anniversary of his death, a special memorial tribute was held in his honor in Foster City, California. Ryan's family and friends, including his three daughters and Jackie Speier, attended. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that "Over and over today, people described a great man who continually exceeded his constituents' expectations."

Near the end of the memorial service, parents of those who had died in Jonestown stood to honor and thank Congressman Ryan for giving his life while trying to save their children. After the service ended, mounted police escorted the family and friends into Foster City's Leo J. Ryan Memorial Park. A wreath was laid next to a commemorative rock that honors Ryan.

The same year, his daughter Erin Ryan, an aide to Speier, attended a memorial for those who died at Jonestown, held at the Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland. On the anniversary of Congressman Ryan's death, Jackie Speier and Patricia Ryan, his daughter and friend, visit his grave at the Golden Gate National Cemetery.

For the 30th anniversary, US Congresswoman Jackie Speier sponsored a bill to designate the United States Postal Service facility at 210 South Ellsworth Avenue in San Mateo, California, as the "Leo J. Ryan Post Office Building". President George W. Bush signed it into law on October 21, 2008. On November 17, 2008, Jackie Speier spoke at the dedication ceremony at the post office. In part, she said,

"There are those – still, thirty years after his passing – who question his motives, or the wisdom of his actions. But criticism was just fine with Leo. Leo Ryan never did anything because he thought it would make him popular. He was more interested in doing what he knew was right."

 

Electoral history

Source

1978 election for U.S. House of Representatives (CD 11) Leo J. Ryan (D), 60.5% Dave Welch (R), 35.6% Nicholas W. Kudrovzeff (American Independent) 3.9% 1976 election for U.S. House of Representatives (CD 11) Leo J. Ryan (D), 61.1% Bob Jones (R), 35.4% Nicholas W. Kudrovzeff (American Independent) 3.5% 1974 election for U.S. House of Representatives (CD 11) Leo J. Ryan (D), 75.8% Brainard G. "Bee" Merdinger (R), 21.3% Nicholas W. Kudrovzeff (American Independent) 2.9% 1972 election for U.S. House of Representatives (CD 11) Leo J. Ryan (D), 60.4% Charles E. Chase (R), 37% Nicholas W. Kudrovzeff (American Independent) 2.6%

1970 Race for California State Assembly (AD 27) Leo J. Ryan (D), 73.2% John R. Sherman (R), 23.1% John Lynch (American Independent) 3.8% 1968 election for California State Assembly (AD 27) Leo J. Ryan (D), 99.8% Will Slocum (I), 0.2% 1966 election for California State Assembly (AD 27) Leo J. Ryan (D), 56.9% Robert N. Miller (R), 43.1% 1964 election for California State Assembly (AD 27) Leo J. Ryan (D), 69% Andrew C. Byrd (R), 31% 1962 election for California State Assembly (AD 27) Leo J. Ryan (D), 63.5% Andrew C. Byrd (R), 36.5% 1958 election for California State Assembly (AD 25) Louis Francis (R), 50.6% Leo J. Ryan (D), 49.4%

 

 

 

Oldal: LEO JOSEPH RYAN Jr- 1925-1978
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