Howard Christopher Ryan (June 17, 1916 – December 10, 2008) was an Illinois attorney and judge, including service as judge of the

Supreme Court of Illinois The Supreme Court of Illinois is the state supreme court, the highest court of the judiciary of Illinois. The court's authority is granted in Article VI of the current Illinois Constitution, which provides for seven justices elected from the ...

(1970 to 1990), and that court's Chief Justice (1982–1985).

Early and family life

A native of Tonica,

LaSalle County, Illinois LaSalle County is a county located within the Fox Valley and Illinois River Valley regions of the U.S. state of Illinois. As of the 2020 Census, it had a population of 109,658. Its county seat and largest city is Ottawa. LaSalle County is ...

, Howard C. Ryan grew up on a farm, and was educated in the local public schools, then LaSalle-Peru-Oglesby Junior College, the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

and the

University of Illinois College of Law The University of Illinois College of Law at Urbana-Champaign is the law school of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a public land-grant research university in Champaign and Urbana, Illinois. It was established in 1897 and offers th ...

. He would enlist in the

U.S. Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical ri ...

, and serve 43 months during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

as a radio operator with the 2nd Ferry Division Air Transport Command. In 1943 he married Helen (née Cizek), who predeceased him. They had a son and a daughter. Their son H. Chris Ryan, Jr., would continue his father's path as a lawyer and local judge and in 2010 begin serving as Chief Judge of the 13th Judicial Circuit

Career

Admitted to the Illinois Bar on April 14, 1942, Ryan practiced law in Decatur,

Macon County, Illinois Macon County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 United States census, it had a population of 103,998. Its county seat and most populous city is Decatur. Macon County comprises the Decatur, IL Metropolit ...

for one and a half years after being discharged from his military service. He then returned to LaSalle County, where he lived in Tonica and moved his legal practice to Peru. He was appointed a part-time assistant LaSalle County state's attorney in 1952. Elected the LaSalle county judge in 1954, in 1957 Ryan was elected circuit judge of the 13th Judicial Circuit, serving as chief judge from 1964 to 1968. He was elected to the 21-county 3rd District Appellate Court in 1968 and from that district was elected to the

in 1970, following a scandal which had led to two resignations. Ryan served as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois from January 1982 to January 1985, and retired in 1990 after serving 36 years as a judge, including 20 years on the Illinois Supreme Court. Ryan issued a 1978 ruling in which he critiqued Illinois' death penalty and anticipated problems cited years later when Governor George H. Ryan ordered a sweeping review of capital punishment. In the beginning of his Supreme Court tenure (''

Carey v. Cousins Carey may refer to: Names * Carey (given name), a list of people with this given name * Carey (surname), about the surname ** List of people with surname Carey Places Canada * Carey Group, British Columbia; in the Pacific * Carey Island (Nunav ...

'', 1977) Ryan opposed the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

but later (''

People vs. Lewis The term "the people" refers to the public or common mass of people of a polity. As such it is a concept of human rights law, international law as well as constitutional law, particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty. In contras ...

'', 1981) voted in favor of it. In a 1991 interview to the

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

Ryan said that he came to have fewer doubts about capital punishment and accepted it as the

law of the land The phrase ''law of the land'' is a legal term, equivalent to the Latin ''lex terrae'', or ''legem terrae'' in the accusative case. It refers to all of the laws in force within a country or region, including statute law and case-made law. Use in ...

. Ryan was a member of the LaSalle County, Illinois State and American Bar Associations, the American Judicature Society,

Phi Alpha Delta Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity, International ( or P.A.D.) is a North American professional fraternity composed of pre-law and law students, legal educators, attorneys, judges, and government officials. It is one of the largest professional law ...

law fraternity, the Odd Fellows and the Elks, the Tonica United Methodist Church as well as a 33rd degree Mason.

Final years and death

After retiring from the bench, Ryan worked three years of counsel to the Chicago law firm Peterson and Ross and in a private mediation service. One of his former law clerks, who had later become an appellate judge in western Illinois,

James D. Heiple James Dee Heiple (September 13, 1933 – January 18, 2021) was an American attorney and jurist. He was elected as a justice of the Illinois Supreme Court in 1990, and went on to serve as its chief justice briefly in 1997, and continued to serve ...

, succeeded him. Judge Ryan survived his wife and died in an assisted living facility in Peru in 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryan, Howard C. 1916 births 2008 deaths People from Tonica, Illinois Military personnel from Illinois Illinois state court judges Judges of the Illinois Appellate Court Chief justices of the Supreme Court of Illinois 20th-century Illinois state court judges University of Illinois College of Law alumni Illinois Republicans