In Memory of Dr. Thomas Ryan, Jr

Obituary

Dr. Thomas Ryan, Jr was born on Sept 14, 1939 to Dr Thomas and Vivian Ryan in Housatonic, Massachusetts. Dr. Ryan graduated from Yale University in 1961 with a BA in Mathematics and a minor in Economics. He graduated from SUNY Downstate Medical Center in 1965. Dr Ryan met his wife, Barbara, while on an internship at Northside (Rochester General) in Rochester, NY. They were married on June 18, 1966. He completed his residency at Deaconess in Boston, Massachusetts and remained to complete a Fellowship in Hematology and Oncology. Dr. Ryan served in the Navy as a Lt. Commander at Bethesda Naval Hospital from 1968 to 1971.

Dr Ryan moved to New Hartford, NY in 1971 and set up private practice in hematology, internal medicine and oncology. He practiced medicine until 2020. He was well loved and respected by patients, their families and his colleagues. He was the area’s first and, for many years, sole oncology expert. Dr Ryan especially loved working with and teaching the residents and interns. He was always reading medical journals and keeping up with the latest medical advances. He believed that doctors should always be learning. If not for COVID, he would have continued to show up for 7am rounds with the residents an interns. Dr. Ryan taught internal medicine at SUNY Upstate for many years.

Dr Ryan loved to fish. If he wasn’t at the hospital, he could be found in waders fly fishing the local streams and rivers for trout or on his boat in Oneida Lake for bass and walleye or on Lake Ontario for salmon. The winter months didn’t stop him, he’d go fishing for steelhead and salmon on the Salmon River near Pulaski. He tied his own flies and had a stream side kit to tie flies if he didn’t have what the fish were eating. His other outdoor activity was golfing. He played as a young man and gave it up as his kids’ soccer games and events took up his weekends. When his boys started playing golf as teenagers, he started playing again. His first game with his boys ended up with a score over 110. But Dr. Ryan was not a quitter, he continued to play and dropped his handicap down to around 12 in his early 50s and would regularly have the lowest score between himself and his sons.

Dr Ryan loved the University of Notre Dame. His mother wouldn’t let him go because it was too far away. He attended at least one Notre Dame football game a year for nearly 50 years. He broke out the special scotch when they would win the National Championship, when his sons were accepted to the University and when they graduated.

Dr Ryan was a bridge card shark. He liked to tell the story of when he and his partner out hustled card hustlers in the 60s. They played for half a penny a point; he and his partner walked away with $60 each which was a lot of money back then. He was still playing bridge this year.

Dr Ryan passed away on May 19, 2025, after a brief illness. He is survived by his wife Barbara, his two brothers, David, wife Mary, and H. Paul, wife Patricia, sister-in-law Molly, his two sons Tom and Steve, daughters-in-law Kimberly and Tammy, grandchildren Stephanie, Cassie, Dylan, and Gabe, nieces Julie, Betsy, Missy, Marsha, Martha, and Siobhan, and nephews Mark, Joe, Paul, Brendon, and Danny. He is predeceased by his daughter Valerie, and brother-in-law Frank. 

In lieu of flowers, please donate to your local Hospice Center.

Visitation will be held on Friday, May 30th at Friedel, Williams & Edmunds Funeral and Cremations Services, 13 Oxford Rd., New Hartford, NY from 5 to 7 pm. A Funeral Mass will be held at St John the Evangelist Church at 10am on Saturday May 31st in New Hartford, NY.

Online messages of sympathy may be left at: www.fwefh.com