James E. Ryan (February 21, 1946 – June 12, 2022) was an American lawyer and politician who served two four-year terms as

Illinois Attorney General The Illinois Attorney General is the highest legal officer of the state of Illinois in the United States. Originally an appointed office, it is now an office filled by statewide election. Based in Chicago and Springfield, Illinois, the attorney ...

. A career

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

, he received his party's nomination and ran unsuccessfully for

Governor of Illinois The governor of Illinois is the head of government of Illinois, and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by p ...

against

Rod Blagojevich Rod Blagojevich ( , born December 10, 1956), often referred to by his nicknames "Blago" or "B-Rod", is an American former politician, political commentator, and convicted felon who served as the 40th governor of Illinois from 2003 to 2009, when ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

Education

Ryan was born in Chicago on February 21, 1946 and grew up in the suburb of

Villa Park, Illinois Villa Park is a village in DuPage County, Illinois, United States, within the Chicago metropolitan area. The population as of the 2020 Census is 21,113. Villa Park is a western suburb of Chicago. History When Ovaltine established its facto ...

. His father, Edward Ryan, was a construction worker while his mother was an Italian immigrant

housewife A housewife (also known as a homemaker or a stay-at-home mother/mom/mum) is a woman whose role is running or managing her family's home—housekeeping, which includes caring for her children; cleaning and maintaining the home; making, buying an ...

. As a youth, he was active in boxing and won the middleweight title in the 1963

Chicago Golden Gloves The Chicago Golden Gloves is an amateur boxing tournament, considered by many boxing aficionados as one of the three most elite Golden Gloves titles, along with the Intercity Golden Gloves and the New York Golden Gloves. The tournament is also more ...

tournament when he was 17 years old. He attended a

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

-run high school, Saint Procopius Academy (now

Benet Academy Benet Academy ( ) is a co-educational, college-preparatory, Benedictine high school in Lisle, Illinois, United States, overseen by the Diocese of Joliet. Founded in 1886, the school was initially established in Chicago as the all-boys St. Procopi ...

). Upon graduating, Ryan went on to study at Saint Procopius College (now

Benedictine University Benedictine University is a private Roman Catholic university in Lisle, Illinois. It was founded in 1887 as St. Procopius College by the Benedictine monks of St. Procopius Abbey in the Pilsen community on the West Side of Chicago. The institu ...

), where he obtained his

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

in 1968. He then went on to

Chicago-Kent College of Law Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school affiliated with the Illinois Institute of Technology. It is the second oldest law school in the state of Illinois. It is ranked 91st among U.S. law schools, and its trial advocacy program is ranked in ...

where he obtained his J.D. in 1971.

Career in politics

Ryan entered the legal profession having found a position with the

DuPage County DuPage County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois, and one of the collar counties of the Chicago metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the population was 932,877, making it Illinois' second-most populous county. Its county seat is ...

State's Attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a loc ...

office. After three years, he was promoted to first Assistant State's Attorney. In 1976, Ryan left the public sector to enter private practice. He worked at an independent law firm until 1984.

DuPage County State's Attorney

Ryan sought the Republican nomination for state's attorney in 1976 but was defeated by J. Michael Fitzsimons. After eight years in private practice, Ryan ran against Fitzsimmons again in the 1984 election, and defeated him in the Republican primary. He won the general election and was re-elected in 1988 and 1992. During his time as state's attorney, he served as president of the Illinois State's Attorney's Association.

Illinois Attorney General

Ryan first ran for

in 1990, but was defeated by the Democrat,

Roland Burris Roland Wallace Burris (born August 3, 1937) is an American politician and attorney who is a former United States Senator from the state of Illinois and a member of the Democratic Party. In 1978, Burris was the first African American elected to ...

. He ran again four years later and won. He was reelected in 1998 with the endorsement of every major newspaper in the state. Ryan's most notable accomplishment as Illinois Attorney General was his $9.1 billion settlement from tobacco companies. He was the last Republican to serve as Illinois attorney general.

2002 gubernatorial campaign

In 2002, Ryan was the Republican candidate for

governor of Illinois The governor of Illinois is the head of government of Illinois, and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by p ...

, defeating two other candidates for the Republican nomination. However, as an incumbent member of the state government, his campaign was negatively affected by scandals engulfing the administration of outgoing Governor

George Ryan George Homer Ryan (born February 24, 1934) is an American former politician and member of the Republican Party who served as the 39th governor of Illinois from 1999 to 2003. Elected in 1998, Ryan received national attention for his 1999 mor ...

(no relation). There was concern that the two men's similar names would also lead to confusion and further association between the two, so, according to the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'', Jim Ryan's campaign sent "a missive to newspaper editors urging them to use 'initials or full names in headlines and graphics' to make clear to readers whether they were referring to George Ryan or the attorney general". In the end, he lost the general election, winning 45% of the vote against Democratic U.S. Representative

, who won 52% of the vote.

2010 gubernatorial campaign

Ryan again ran for governor in 2010 and at one point led in aggregate polling, but he eventually lost the Republican primary to State Senator Bill Brady, coming in fourth in a field of seven candidates. He was on the receiving end of a great deal of controversy for his conduct in the erroneous prosecution of Rolando Cruz and Alex Hernandez in the

Jeanine Nicarico murder case The Jeanine Nicarico murder case was a complex and influential homicide investigation and prosecution in which two men, Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez, both Latinos, were wrongfully convicted of abduction, rape and murder in 1985 in DuPage ...

Electoral history

Illinois gubernatorial election, 2002 The 2002 Illinois gubernatorial election occurred on November 5, 2002. Incumbent Republican governor George Ryan, who was plagued by scandal, did not run for a second term. Democrat Rod Blagojevich, a U.S. Congressman, ran against Republican J ...

( D), 52% *#Jim Ryan ( R), 45% *

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

*#Jim Ryan (R) (inc.), 61% *#Miriam Santos (D), 37% *

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

*#Jim Ryan (R), 54% *#Al Hofeld (D), 45% *

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

(D), 52% *#Jim Ryan (R), 48%

Career in academia

After the 2002 elections, Ryan returned to his alma mater, Benedictine University, where he was named a Distinguished Fellow and taught political science and criminal justice courses. In 2005, he established the Center for Civic Leadership at Benedictine.

Personal life

Ryan and his wife, Marie, had six children. In 1996, Jim Ryan was diagnosed with Stage 2

non-Hodgkin lymphoma Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), also known as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, is a group of blood cancers that includes all types of lymphomas except Hodgkin lymphomas. Symptoms include enlarged lymph nodes, fever, night sweats, weight loss, and tiredness. ...

and began

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherap ...

. In January 1997, the youngest of Jim and Marie Ryan's six children, 12-year-old Anne Marie, collapsed and died of a

brain tumor A brain tumor occurs when abnormal cells form within the brain. There are two main types of tumors: malignant tumors and benign (non-cancerous) tumors. These can be further classified as primary tumors, which start within the brain, and seconda ...

. In October 1997, Marie Ryan suffered what appeared to be a near-fatal heart attack as the couple walked near their home; the cause turned out to be a rare virus. On October 8, 2007, Ryan's son, Patrick, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the family's home in Elmhurst, aged 24.

Death

Ryan died at his home in DuPage County on June 12, 2022, aged 76, after what a family spokesperson described as "several lengthy illnesses".

References

External links

Jim Ryan, Distinguished Fellow at Benedictine University
– faculty search page at

Jim Ryan, Attorney at Law, Naperville Illinois
* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Ryan, Jim 1946 births 2022 deaths 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American politicians 21st-century American politicians American lawyers and judges of Italian descent American legal scholars American politicians of Italian descent Benedictine University alumni Benedictine University faculty Candidates in the 1976 United States elections Candidates in the 2002 United States elections Candidates in the 2010 United States elections Chicago-Kent College of Law alumni Illinois Attorneys General Illinois Institute of Technology alumni Illinois Republicans Lawyers from Chicago People from Elmhurst, Illinois People from Villa Park, Illinois Politicians from Chicago