Queen’s University Archives

CA QUA00377
Person
1906-1995

Kathleen (Whitton) Ryan, a businesswoman based in Ottawa, was born in Renfrew, Ontario. She graduated from Queen's University with an honours degree in Economics in 1926. She married fellow Queen's graduate Frank Ryan (BA '27), who became a prominent radio broadcaster after working at Queen's radio station CFRC. He was also the owner and founder of CFRA radio station in Ottawa.

She took over his business interests after his death in 1964 and rapidly developed a reputation as one of the city's most astute business leaders. In 1976, she established the Kathleen Ryan Foundation at Queen's to provide for the preservation of buildings in the Medical Quadrangle.

The fund helped to renovate the New Medical Building into a home for the Queen's University Archives, which was renamed Kathleen Ryan Hall in her honour in 1982. She also gave a significant grant to CFRC Radio in 1977 to help it establish a stereo signal.

Kathleen Ryan served as a University Councillor for many years. Her sister, Charlotte Whitton, was also a Queen's alumna and became Canada's first female mayor when elected in Ottawa in 1950.

Ryan, Harold Robert Stuart

CA QUA01758
Person
1910-2004

H.R. Stuart Ryan, (1910-2004 ) Q.C., D.C.L. was born in Newburg, Ontario. He graduated in 1930, in Classics, from Trinity College, University of Toronto, and from Osgoode Hall Law School, in 1933. He started a legal practice in Port Hope in 1934, returning there after serving in World War II. In 1941, he became Mayor of Port Hope, and Chairman of the Board of Education. When the Faculty of Law was established at Queen's University in 1957, Stuart Ryan, along with Daniel Soberman, were the first two teachers hired, H.R.S Ryan specializing in criminal law. He was well known as an advocate of civil liberties and human rights in society, especially in prisons. Harold Robert Stuart Ryan died at his home, in Kingston, Ontario, in April 2004, at age 93.

R.W Dumbrille