Born and raised in Hatfield, MA, the son of Thomas W. and Hannah (Whalen) Ryan, was educated in local public schools and a graduate of Smith Academy High School. He furthered his education by attending the University of Massachusetts and obtained an LL.B. from the Columbus University School of Law in Washington, D.C. He also attended the National War College in Washington in 1958-59. Early in his working life, he was a sports reporter for two Massachusetts newspapers and administrative assistant in a fruit and produce company in Hartford, CT. In 1937, he accepted a clerk-secretary position with the Passport Office of the Department of State and then advanced to increasingly responsible positions in the Department, including Assistant Chief of the Divisions of Departmental and of Foreign Service Personnel, Chief of Personnel Operations and Executive Director of the Bureau of Near Eastern, South Asian and African Affairs. In 1955, he was appointed to the U.S. Foreign Service as a senior Foreign Service Officer. His Foreign Service assignments included Counselor for Administration at the U.S. Embassy in Paris and concurrently Executive Officer of the U.S. Mission to NATO, Ambassador to Niger and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Administration. He joined the United Nations Secretariat in New York in 1969, serving first as Director of Administrative Management Services and then later as Assistant Secretary General for General Services, a position which encompassed a broad range of administrative responsibilities including the logistics of UN peacekeeping operations. After he retired from the UN in 1977, Ambassador Ryan resided in Volusia County, FL. He remained active in foreign affairs until his death, particularly working to build grass-roots support for U.S. foreign affairs programs and for the United Nations.