He is a “heavyweight” and an “idealist,” a leader who has been the driving force behind one of the most transformative periods in Northwestern’s history.
He’s a man who has helped lead NU to the forefront of modern science, one of the trustees responsible for bringing University President Henry Bienen to NU.
His investments and support spurred one of the greatest eras in NU sports history.
Since retiring from his role as executive chairman of Aon Corporation in 2008, outgoing Board of Trustees Chairman Patrick G. Ryan, 72, has brought the same success and prestige that have been achieved at NU to the City of Chicago.
Under his stewardship, Aon Corporation, the company Ryan helped create in 1982 from a merger of the Ryan Insurance Group and Combined International Corporation, quickly grew to one of the world’s largest insurance and reinsurance corporations in the world.
As chairman and CEO of the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid, Ryan, Weinberg ’59, is charging ahead with a vision for the future of Chicago.
Though he is stepping down from the NU trustee chairmanship in August, Ryan’s 14-year commitment can be seen and felt in the halls of the university.
Ben Slivka, McCormick BS ’82 and MS ’85, the lead developer of Internet Explorer and a former Microsoft project leader, was recruited by Ryan for NU’s Board of Trustees in 1998. Slivka wrote in an e-mail interview that Ryan helped create a Board of Trustees that was “more diverse in every measure.”
Ryan’s many awards, including a 2008 appointment to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, are testaments to the breadth of his leadership, said Vice President for Administration & Planning Marilyn McCoy.
“It’s quite an unusual honor, one that really represents his many points of contribution and impact in the wider world,” she said.
Ryan said the selection was “a statement of achievement that resonated throughout higher education – a great thrill.”
NU basketball star Joe Ruklick, Weinberg ’59, who was Ryan’s contemporary, said Ryan had a “natural ability” to lead.
From organizing a spring formal party at Sigma Chi Fraternity to discussing the curriculum of the undergraduate business school, then the School of Commerce, “Pat Ryan was a leader,” Ruklick said. “It was that ability to get people to be quiet, sit down and pay attention to the issue.”
PARTNERSHIPS
Ryan said he never expected to be appointed to the Board of Trustees in 1978, or that he would become chairman of the board in 1996. Ryan’s vision for the university, however, was expansive – he said he could not accept NU “becoming a great academic institution and failing in any aspect of the university.”
He said the university’s blend of high academics and athletic achievement made it uniquely suited to become a world-class institution.
Ruklick called Ryan and Shirley Welsh Ryan “visionaries,” and said Ryan helped make NU “an Athens of higher education.”
“He saw the future of it as a place that would be diverse, prominent in athletic competition, extremely rigorous, a place that attracted students who were gifted and talented and bright,” he said.
As one of the members of the 18-member search committee for former University President Arnold Weber’s replacement, Ryan’s “vigorous leadership” was responsible for attracting Bienen to NU, Slivka wrote.
Ryan said he shared a goal with Bienen and late University Provost Lawrence Dumas to achieve excellence in “every way that the university involves itself,” from the sciences – nanoscience in particular – to athletics.
All were involved in the difficult decision to close NU’s dental school in 1997, McCoy said. The school was formally closed in May 2001.
“Pat certainly felt very personally the angst that you go through when you do something as momentous as closing a school,” she said, adding that Ryan had a similar experience when NU’s undergraduate business school closed.
Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education Ron Braeutigam called the Bienen-Ryan pair “a magnificent team.”
“Through good budgetary times and not-so-good budgetary times and through the establishment of all kinds of programs, these interdisciplinary programs across campus and the growing emphasis on globalization, the establishment of the Qatar Campus – it’s been a great partnership,” he said.
ATHLETICS AND BEYOND
Pat Ryan and his wife have also lent their names to NU sports venues Ryan Field and Welsh-Ryan Arena, respectively, commitments that have played host to some of NU’s greatest athletic feats, a five-time national champion women’s lacrosse dynasty and numerous bowl game appearances, including a berth in the 1996 Rose Bowl.
As trustee chairman, Ryan was “not satisfied with an athletic program that did not believe that it could be excellent as well,” McCoy said.
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley approached Ryan about leading the city’s bid for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games about three-and-a-half years ago, Ryan said. Ryan agreed to lead Chicago’s bid because he said he thought it would be “a great thing for the people of Chicago and Illinois and the country” with a lasting impact on future generations.
As the chairman and chief executive officer of the bid, Ryan “started with a clean sheet of paper.”
“It’s the worst job I’ve ever had because it doesn’t pay,” Ryan joked. “It’s winner-take-all, so there’s no prize for second place…the goal is that you can have such a profound impact on people that it’s worth pursuing.”
Ruklick said Ryan “sees sports in a dimension most people don’t,” a quality that can be seen in both his support for athletics at NU and his vision for the Chicago 2016 bid.
“He sees it less as something that arouses passion for a pro team or a college team, but as something that has to do with the highest ideals of people realizing their goals and fulfilling their potential,” Ruklick said.
A LEGACY
As Ryan cedes his trustee chairman position to William Osborn, Kellogg ’73, this fall, he said he plans to remain on the board and play an active role at NU.
“We’re positioned to continue to move forward…I’m very pleased with the choice of (Williams College President) Morty Schapiro as Henry’s successor,” Ryan said.
The “exact contours” of the university’s future have yet to be formed, McCoy said.
“It’s yet to be defined,” she said. “Certainly, President Schapiro comes to NU and already has a lot of history and strengths on which to build.”
With regard to Ryan’s greatest impact on NU, “his contributions of time, energy and money to Northwestern are immense,” Slivka wrote.
“All the new buildings, the 7th largest university endowment in the country, the great new faculty, the ever higher standards of our students, and the increasing accomplishments of our varsity athletes…” Slivka wrote. “…NU is better in every way.”
Editor’s note: The original version of this article stated that Ben Slivka graduated from Northwestern in 1985. Slivka received a master’s degree from McCormick in 1985, and was in the undergraduate class of 1982.
Related:Tribute to be held for outgoing Bienen, Ryan 5/19/09
