Jim Ryan: A Fighter for the Public Good

When it comes to serving his fellow man, Jim Ryan is no stranger. For the last seven years, he has been shaping a new generation of leaders and responsible citizens as a Distinguished Fellow at Benedictine University in Lisle. While teaching students politics and government, Jim set up the university’s Center of Civic Leadership and Public Service.

Prior to that, Jim Ryan was a popular and innovative two-term Attorney General in Illinois from 1995-2002. He was a strong advocate for battered women, abused children and crime victims. He was credited with a thorough professionalization of the office, which he undertook by immediately closing a dozen offices filled with political patronage hires and replaced them with crime fighting prosecutors. After only one term, the state Capitol based State Journal-Register described him as already one of the finest Attorneys General in state history. In winning a sweeping re-election in 1998 and when running for Governor in 2002, nearly every newspaper in Illinois praised his effective stewardship of the office.

As Attorney General and State’s Attorney of DuPage County from 1984-1995, Jim Ryan was known both as an effective crime fighter and as a leader in protecting women, children and the less fortunate. As Attorney General he created the state’s first Health Care Bureau, which helped hundreds of families navigate difficult health care problems. One of his signature achievements was creation, as DuPage County State’s Attorney, of the state’s first ever Child Advocacy Center, a public private partnership that helped abused children deal with the cold realities of the criminal justice system. He helped promote the concept as Attorney General and now Illinois has nearly 30 such nationally recognized centers. The Attorney General’s office also was instrumental in setting up the Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that provides millions of dollars to improve children’s health across the state.

Jim Ryan was bom to Edward and Elissa Ryan on February 21, 1946, in Chicago. Edward was an Irish American home builder and Elissa was a homemaker who immigrated from Italy as a child. Jim and his two younger sisters. Maria and Peggy, grew up in the home their father built in Villa Park. Ryan attended a local Catholic high school. St. Procopius Academy (now Benet Academy). He graduated from Illinois Benedictine College (now Benedictine University) in 1968, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. In 1971, he received his law degree from Chicago-Kent College of Law. Ryan and his wife Marie, his high school sweetheart and wife of 41 years, have six children, John, Jim, Matt, Amy, Patrick and Anne Marie. His two youngest children, Patrick and Anne Marie, are now deceased. The Ryans also have nine grandchildren.

Throughout his rich life, Jim Ryan and his close and loving family have demonstrated grace under pressure. His faith and experience as a Golden Gloves boxing champion in Chicago helped him handle the rough blows life would deliver. Jim Ryan has beat back three bouts of non-Hodgkin’s large cell lymphoma cancer and has been cancer-free for eight years. His wife Marie nearly died after suffering a cardiac arrest in 1997 and has fully recovered. Tragically, their youngest child Anne Marie died in 1997 at the age of 12 to an undetected brain tumor, and their second youngest child, Patrick, took his own life in 2007.

The Ryans endured their tragedies through their faith and by helping others. The annual Annie Ryan Run in Elmhurst has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Midwest Children’s Brain Tumor Center at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. Jim has been vocal in speaking out publicly on mental illness and Jim and Marie have quietly counseled hundreds of families dealing with cancer and other hardships.

A common thread through Jim Ryan’s public and private life has been his service to others. He wants to continue those efforts as Governor.