Robert M. Ryan was “just a good, plain, jovial Irishman” who hung his hat on the virtues of work and family–the “kind of man you don’t find too often anymore,” according to his wife of 44 years, Marion. Mr. Ryan, 84, a decades-long employee of Nabisco, a hearse driver for 45 years and a longtime Morton Grove resident, died Sunday, July 6, of a heart attack in Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. Mr. Ryan, who was born on the West Side, graduated from Austin High School in 1936 and began work as a truck driver for Nabisco. He entered the Navy in 1943, and after four years as a petty officer, mostly in the Pacific, he returned to Chicago and to Nabisco, becoming a sales representative, a position he held until his retirement in 1984. To make what his wife called “a little pocket money,” Mr. Ryan drove a hearse each Saturday for 45 years. Mr. Ryan is survived by two daughters, Patricia Sands and Michelle; a sister, Eileen Rundquist; and two grandchildren. Services will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday in Cooney Funeral Home, 625 Busse Highway, Park Ridge.
