{"id":3627,"date":"2016-06-21T09:40:57","date_gmt":"2016-06-21T16:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/erlenmeyer\/?p=3627"},"modified":"2016-06-21T09:40:57","modified_gmt":"2016-06-21T16:40:57","slug":"jack-ryan-memorium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/erlenmeyer\/2016\/06\/21\/jack-ryan-memorium\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Ryan: In Memorium"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jack_L_Ryan_Pic_2\"<\/a>Jack Lewis Ryan passed away on March 20, 2016, surrounded by his loving family.\u00a0 He was born in Dallas, Oregon on May 14, 1933, to Charles W. Ryan and Cornie A. (Lewis) Ryan, both of east Tennessee.\u00a0 Jack grew up and thrived on a beautiful small farm in the foothills of the Oregon Coast Range, in the community of Bridgeport.\u00a0 His early years were spent learning to farm, raise livestock, cook, harvest and preserve fruit and vegetables, and doing whatever was required to maintain the farm and help his family.\u00a0 He enjoyed swimming in the Little Luckiamute River, which ran through the farm, with his younger brother Pat and neighborhood children, and later as a teen-ager building small dams and holding all-night bonfires on the beach.\u00a0 In Jack\u2019s formative years he hunted and fished, and experienced the joys of nature, a life-time pursuit.\u00a0 In his adult years he would return \u201chome\u201d to the farm to hold his famous fish fries for his childhood friends and family.<\/p>\n

Jack was preceded in death by his parents, brother George \u201cPat\u201d Ryan, and first wife Dorothy Ryan.\u00a0 He is survived by his former wife, JoAnn Ryan of West Richland, son Rex Ryan of Pasco, stepdaughters Barronelle Stutzman (Darold) of\u00a0 the Tri-Cities, and Thora Ziegler of Riverside, California, step-grandchildren Troy Woody (Dawn) and Dawn Persinger, (Marc), numerous step-great-grandchildren, nieces Ann Signal and Cynthia Ryan, and many close friends.<\/p>\n

Jack attended the one-room Bridgeport Grade School, and later, Dallas High School.\u00a0 He left home at sixteen to study at Oregon State College (now Oregon State University), where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry in 1953, and a Master of Science Degree in Chemistry in 1956.\u00a0 He was the youngest person at that time to graduate with a master\u2019s degree from OSC.\u00a0 His professional career spanned over fifty years at the Hanford Site, primarily with Battelle Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.\u00a0 He made significant scientific and technical contributions in fundamental and applied inorganic, physical, and analytical chemistry of the actinide elements, in addition to the chemistry of the lanthanide and d-group transition elements.\u00a0 The breadth of his work led to noteworthy contributions in inorganic preparative chemistry, coordination chemistry, ion exchange and solvent extraction chemistry, absorption spectroscopy, electrochemistry, thermodynamics, and nonaqueous chemistry of these elements.<\/p>\n

His works related to anion-exchange purification of plutonium and neptunium, the solubility and thermodynamics of the actinide oxides and hydroxides, and the electrolytic dissolution of plutonium dioxide are of particular significance to actinide separations in the nuclear industry.\u00a0 His accomplishments in these areas were reflected in various plant applications at Rocky Flats, Los Alamos, Hanford, and in other countries.\u00a0 In 1974, Jack co-invented catalyzed electrolytic dissolution of plutonium oxide.\u00a0 The merit of this invention is evidenced by the installation of plant-scale processes using this technology in France and the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

In addition to his research contributions in the laboratory, Jack prepared invited reviews of actinide-element ion exchange for the esteemed \u201cGmelin Handbuch der Anorganischen Chemie<\/u>\u201d and of actinide-absorption spectra.\u00a0 Jack also gave invited lectures and short courses in the fields of actinide chemistry, actinide-absorption spectra, and actinide ion exchange, and educated scientists and engineers in the Hanford area through teaching graduate-level chemistry courses in “Lanthanide and Actinide Chemistry” and “Ion Exchange Chromatography\u201d.\u00a0 His original works in actinide chemistry are published in numerous scientific journals and books and are recognized by chemists worldwide.\u00a0 He authored more than one hundred technical articles during his career.\u00a0 Some of Jack\u2019s contributions to chemistry are catalogued in the Library of Congress.<\/p>\n

Jack consulted in the field of actinide chemistry as related to laser-isotope separation, nuclear-weapons proliferation, and actinide-chemical processing.\u00a0 He consulted on the causes of chemical explosions in actinide purification processes and served on a committee reviewing actinide-processing plant safety.\u00a0 Additionally, Jack consulted on safety considerations related to the use of organic ion-exchange resins in the clean-up of Three-Mile Island contamination.<\/p>\n

In 1999, the Actinide Separations Conference recognized the importance of Jack\u2019s contributions by honoring him with the Glenn T. Seaborg Actinide Separations Award, a national award recognizing significant and lasting contributions to separating actinide elements.<\/p>\n

Jack was a sixty-year member of the American Chemical Society (past chair of the local section and recipient of “1991 Chemist of the Year” award), the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Sigma Xi.<\/p>\n

Jack was an avid and skilled outdoorsman.\u00a0 He found great joy in hiking, backpacking, mountain climbing, hunting, fishing, crabbing, mushrooming, gardening, cutting firewood, and roaming the land searching for wild foods, abandoned crops, and usable discarded items.\u00a0 He piled more than a dozen cords of firewood on his driveway, which allowed him to heat his house for years without using his electric heating system.\u00a0 Nearly every year he filled his deer and elk tags, brought home many limits of fish and chukars, harvested dozens of gallons of wild mushrooms, and grew hundreds of pounds of produce in his organic garden.\u00a0 Nothing went to waste \u2013 Jack canned and froze all of his bounty so that it could be enjoyed all year long, and shared with many.<\/p>\n

He was happiest when family and friends accompanied him on his forays, taking many solo trips when they were not available.\u00a0 It was common for Jack to venture miles off the roads and trails in search of the ultimate hunting or fishing experience.\u00a0 No cliff, blackberry bramble, poison ivy patch, rattlesnake habitat, angry bear, or below-zero temperature could stop him.\u00a0 Picking his way through five miles of forest at night with ninety pounds of elk meat on his back repetitively in five round trips was routine for him each hunting season.\u00a0 He was at home with nature and all of its rigors.\u00a0 His lineage can be traced to Meriwether Lewis, which comes as no surprise.<\/p>\n

Jack truly was a unique individual.\u00a0 He was frugal to a fault, spending only a thousand dollars each year on food and clothing items.\u00a0 His favorite shopping experience was poking around Goodwill.\u00a0 He enjoyed going barefoot and performed all of his gardening duties, including spading, without shoes.\u00a0 Television was an unnecessary luxury.\u00a0 The local newspaper, National Geographic magazine, and various technical journals provided Jack ample information to stay well-informed.\u00a0 He was stubborn yet fair, and honest and loyal in his interactions with others.\u00a0 He was a keen observer of his surroundings and work activities, and enjoyed recounting his observations in detail.\u00a0 Jack\u2019s friends marveled at the incongruity of his incredible memory for detail, but lack of recollection that he had told them the same story several times before.<\/p>\n

The legendary Jack Ryan\u2019s family and friends will cherish his memory for decades to come, recounting stories of adventure among themselves, and never, ever, forgetting the kind, generous, amazing, independent wild mountain man who Jack was.\u00a0 He leaves us in awe of an interesting and adventurous life well-lived. His ashes will be scattered in several beautiful nature locations that were very special to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people hear their own inner voices with great clearness. And they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy… or they become legend.\u201d\u00a0 ~\u00a0 Jim Harrison<\/p>\n

In lieu of flowers, please contribute to The National Geographic Society.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/donate.nationalgeographic.org\/Page.aspx?pid=184<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A remembrance service and memorial will be announced at a later time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jack Lewis Ryan passed away on March 20, 2016, surrounded by his loving family.\u00a0 He was born in Dallas, Oregon on May 14, 1933, to Charles W. Ryan and Cornie A. (Lewis) Ryan, both of east Tennessee.\u00a0 Jack grew up and thrived on a beautiful small farm in the foothills of the Oregon Coast Range,… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3656,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[199138],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-memorium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/erlenmeyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/erlenmeyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/erlenmeyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/erlenmeyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3656"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/erlenmeyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3627"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/erlenmeyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3629,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/erlenmeyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3627\/revisions\/3629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/erlenmeyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/erlenmeyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/erlenmeyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}