Brother Thomas Francis Ryan, C.F.X. (Brother Lee) 1948-2024

1962 was an instrumental year in the life of the young Tom Ryan. That is the year this son of Thomas F. Ryan and Mildred (Kennedy) Ryan, a child of Bronx, NY, began his high school career at Cardinal Hayes High School on Grand Concourse in New York City. Tom, an only child with native intelligence, would sit in the classrooms at Hayes and gaze out the window onto the multiple train tracks that ran alongside the building. His father worked for the railroad, and so Tom knew every line, every track, every train that ran along those tracks. He knew which ones his father may be traveling, and at which time, and at which junction they would switch. This kind of eye for detail would serve him well later in life. He would know which tracks – both literally and figuratively – his students would travel, and he would be there at the junction, just in case they needed him.

It was at Cardinal Hayes that he would first meet the Xaverian Brothers and especially the peripatetic Brother Arnold (who many of us would know as Brother J. Robert Houlihan). Arnold, among other things, was the moderator of the Camera Club, the ideal extracurricular activity for the introverted Thomas Ryan. It was in Camera Club that Tom came to know the life of service, commitment and availability that was the life of a Xaverian Brother. Of course, he knew that as well from the Brothers he had in class, but it was in the extracurricular activities that he experienced it more dramatically. His encounters with Brother Arnold, who engaged the young, introverted and brilliant Tom Ryan, would lead him to discern his own vocation of service as a Xaverian Brother. Brother Arnold had a special predilection for the underdog, and so he watched out for Tom Ryan, encouraged him and developed in him the gifts Tom never realized he had. This preference for the underdog would become a hallmark of Brother Ryan’s life as a teacher and as a religious brother.

Upon graduation from Cardinal Hayes in 1966, Thomas Ryan travelled to Newton Highlands, MA to throw his lot in with the Xaverian Brothers. Having made this switch at this junction, he never looked back. He knew this was the life that God called him to. As a novice Brother he came under the tutelage of another renowned Xaverian, the late Brother Aubert (Downey). Brother Aubert was teaching both English and the history of the Congregation at the novitiate, and Tom soaked up everything he could learn about the early Brothers – their commitment, their struggles, their failures and their successes. He and Aubert retained their relationship long after Tom made first vows in 1968. Aubert would entrust Tom with his life work, namely, chronicling the life of our Founder and those of his followers. For years, Tom would chronicle those lives in the Xaverian Menology.

After graduating from Catholic University in 1971, Brother Ryan began his teaching career at St. John’s High School, Shrewsbury. He taught at St. John’s from 1971 – 81 and again from 1983-89. It was at St. John’s that he came under the tutelage of the redoubtable Brother Ivan, who served as superior of the community. Ivan played an influential role in Brother Tom’s commitment to work for the underdog, to notice what was happening in the lives of his students, especially those who thought themselves on the margins. He also interspersed his service at St. John’s with two stints at St. Joseph Regional HS in Montvale, NJ from 1981-83 and again from 1989-92.

In 1992, he reluctantly accepted the offer to serve on the administrative team at Xavier High School, Middletown, CT with the caveat that he could also teach. While administration may have gained him years off purgatory, it was not his forte and certainly not his love. He loved being a teacher. If the Brothers’ old Manual of Customs and Advice laid out the basis for what would today become the Partners In Mission document of Xaverian Brothers Sponsored Schools, Brother Ryan would be the model par excellence of the Xaverian values of humility, simplicity, compassion, trust and zeal. Countless alumni from Xavier, St. John’s or St Joseph Regional could speak to his competence as a teacher, and just as many could speak to the way he embodied the Xaverian values and instilled them by example in his students.

Brother Ryan loved teaching, especially English, Social Studies, and more recently Civics. No doubt students who were fortunate to have Brother Ryan as a teacher can still diagram the most compound-complex sentence you can imagine. His favorite past time was trains, watching them, riding them, logging the numbers of the cars. One excess he allowed himself was a periodic trip to Horseshoe Curve just outside Altoona, PA, one of the engineering marvels of the world. He introduced many a train afficionado to this marvel.

When Brother Ryan wasn’t teaching, working in the bookstore, preparing substitutions for absent teachers, moderating the train club or some other extracurricular, cleaning up after a dance, or attending a student retreat, he was serving the Brothers. His care for elderly and infirm Brothers was legendary. It was because of his care for the Brothers that he was asked and accepted to serve as Director of the Brothers’ retirement community in Danvers, MA. He worked around the clock to make sure the Brothers received quality care. Even the most obstinate of Brothers – and there have been one or two of them – responded with gratitude for whatever Tom would do to ease their suffering.

The life of a teaching Brother, and all that entailed, drew Brother Ryan back to Xavier HS after his term of service at Xaverian House. Xavier was his home, and he was a fixture there at any hour of the day or night. Students, teachers, alumni, parents knew where to find Brother Ryan when they needed something, and he always responded graciously.

In the Fundamental Principles of the Xaverian Brothers we read,

It is through your life of gospel witness
lived in common with your brothers
that God desires to manifest
His care and compassionate love
to those who are separated and estranged,
not only from their neighbors,
but also from their own uniqueness;
to those who suffer
from want, neglect, and injustice:
the poor, the weak, and the oppressed
of this world.

They too are called
to experience,
express,
and share
the love of God with the world
through their own giftedness.

In this life of following Christ,
allow yourself, therefore, to be given away,
together with your brothers,
as nourishment for others,as bread that is broken.

Brother Thomas Ryan embodied that call of the Xaverian way of life. He saw the uniqueness in others and fostered it. He brought out the God-given gifts and talents that students never realized they had. He manifested God’s care and compassionate love to everyone, with no exception. He allowed himself to be given away, “as nourishment for others, as bread that is broken.”

May this faithful son of Thomas and Mildred Ryan, disciple of Theodore James Ryken, protégé of men like Brothers Houlihan, Aubert and Ivan, now enjoy eternal life and experience God’s unconditional and all-embracing love.

Funeral Arrangements

Please check the Xavier High School website
for exact details on the time of the committal.
Arrangements by Biega Funeral Home, Middletown, CT

 In lieu of flowers contributions can be made in Brother Ryan’s name to the
Susan G. Ciganek Scholarship Fund
Xavier High School
181 Randolph Rd.
Middletown, CT
or
Xaverian Brothers
4409 Frederick Ave.
Baltimore, MD 21229