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Obituaries

Obituary for Halford Ryan Halford Ryan
Former W&L Speech Professor Dies At Age 74

Halford Ryan, aged 74, of Lexington, Virginia died peacefully at home of pancreatic cancer on May 15, 2018.

He was born December 29, 1943 in Anderson, Indiana, the only child of Samuel and Twyla Ryan.

Ryan graduated from Wabash College in 1966 with an A.B. in speech and religion. He attended Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey for one year on a Rockefeller Theological Fellowship. He attended the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, where he received the M.A. in 1968 and Ph.D. in 1972 in speech.

Ryan joined the W&L faculty in 1970 as an instructor and retired in 2010. He taught all the courses in public speaking and coached the debate team. He was a visiting professor of speech at the University of Virginia, VMI and Sweet Briar College.

Ryan authored six books, co-edited two, and edited four. He published 15 articles in nationally referred journals, six invited chapters in scholarly books, as well as numerous book reviews and convention papers. He served terms as the editor of the Virginia Journal of Communication and the National Forensic Journal. He served as co-editor/co-advisor of Greenwood Press's "Great American Orators Series." Ryan was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar in 1981 at the Ohio State University in Columbus.

Halford is survived by Cheryl, his wife of 47 years, and their only child, Shawn and her husband, Carsten Scharlemann; and two grandchildren, Cara and Eric, all of whom live in Vienna, Austria.

Burial will be private.

Arrangements made by Harrison Funeral Home & Crematory. In lieu of flowers, donations may be given to Rockbridge Area Hospice, 315 Meyers Street, Lexington, VA 24450. Arrangements are by Harrison Funeral Home & Crematory.