Michael John Ryan
Michael John Ryan
December 13, 1946
March 1, 2021
Michael John Ryan of Portland, Maine, passed away peacefully on March 1, 2021, of complications of vascular dementia and Parkinson’s disease.~ He was 74 years old.
Michael was born in Toronto, Canada, and raised in Syracuse, New York. He graduated from Hamilton College in 1968, with a BA in philosophy, and soon moved to Massachusetts, where he worked at Boston’s Model Cities Program, an anti-poverty project launched as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and War on Poverty.~ At Model Cities, Michael first encountered the health care field, writing grant applications for three neighborhood community health centers.
After earning an MBA from Boston University with a concentration in Healthcare Management, Michael turned to hospital administration.~ He began his career at Cambridge Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1986, he relocated to Portland to work at Maine Medical Center.~ He retired in 2012 as Vice President for Operations, after 26 years at the hospital.
Michael was active in the community, particularly as a founding board member of Konbit Sante, a health partnership project in Cap Haitien, Haiti.~ He also served as Maine Medical Center’s representative on the board of the United Way of Greater Portland.
Michael’s warmth, kindness, integrity, and humility were apparent to all who knew him.~ He enjoyed sailing, hiking, mowing his Downeast fields, and traveling in Europe at sea and on land during his retirement years.~ He grew up in a musical family and loved music of all kinds; especially folk, jazz, Motown, and Italian opera.~ His most recent joys were his two grandsons, Arthur and Owen, gifts to him in the last year of his life.
Michael is survived by Mary Louise McGregor, his beloved wife of 47 years, his children, Elizabeth and Alexander, the aforementioned Arthur and Owen, his sister Nancy, and his brother Rob.
Online condolences may be expressed below.
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