PORT TOWNSEND — Allen Anthony Ryan was only 5 years old the day he climbed the steps of the Catholic orphanage in Rochester, N.Y., and stepped over the threshold. But he didn’t let his small stature prevent him from standing up for himself in his new home.
“I was there five minutes when some big, tall kid started giving me a rough time,” Ryan said, “so I punched him in the stomach. He turned out to be the school bully, but he never bothered me again.”
In the nine years he lived in the orphanage, Ryan learned three things: to pick his fights, to keep his ears open and to keep his mouth closed.
On Saturday, Ryan was honored as the 2008-2009 Elk of the Year by Port Townsend Elks Lodge No. 317 for years of quiet service, both to the lodge and the community.
“Words don’t come easy,” Ryan said, taking the podium. “That’s why we fall in the background in the most events.”
Ryan and spouse Kathie Ryan volunteer at lodge social functions, including Western Night and Oktoberfest, taking tickets and collecting money for raffles, according to Mel Mefford, program emcee.
A member of the Port Townsend Elks Lodge for 12 years, Ryan served as the lodge’s ritual coach and on the scholarship committee and carried the American flag for Veterans Day and Memorial Day programs.
“He is proud to be an Elk,” Mefford said.
Ken Brink, who as last year’s honoree organized the dinner, said that Ryan is also a member of the local Kiwanis club, where he volunteers for 15 to 20 projects a year. Ryan was named the 2007 Kiwanian of the Year, received the Team Captain and Helping Hand awards and other honors, Brink said.
“He has gotten just about every award there is,” Brink said.
Born in Rochester, Ryan was 2¬½ years old when his father died, and his grandmother took Al and his siblings under her wing.
When she was no longer able to care for them, she took the three children to the Catholic orphanage, where Al lived in a room with four to six other boys.
He and his siblings were separated, Ryan said, but when he was 14, a wonderful woman named Kerr took him into her home, all but adopting him.
In 1961, after graduating from high school, he enlisted in the Air Force, then studied pharmacology at the University of Rochester. He went on to nursing school, but after coming out to the West Coast in the late ’70s, settled in Silverdale and worked at car dealerships.
Ryan also sold cars at Courtesy Ford in Port Townsend before retiring, Mefford said.
As an Elks member, Ryan helped put on the lodge golf tournament.
“He’s the official greens keeper of the lodge’s golf course,” Mefford said, referring to the putting green behind the building.
At Saturday’s dinner, Linda Hinds presented Al’s wife, Kathie Ryan, with a bouquet of red roses, and Ryan opened gifts and cards, including a $200 gift certificate from the lodge.
Kathie’s daughter, Jennifer Logue, and friends Bob and Patti Kelvey of Port Townsend were among those attending the dinner in Ryan’s honor.
Also honored for service to the lodge were Greg Jacobsen, Dennis Morgan and Dave Sather. Ken Pope, an Elks member who died recently, was honored posthumously.
Ryan thanked the Elks, saying being named Elk of the Year was a great honor.
Growing up in an orphanage gave him a strong sense of self-reliance, he said, and taught him to do what he thought was right and not look back.
“I’ve learned to appreciate the moments of life,” Ryan said, “and not dwell on the past.”
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Port Townsend/Jefferson County reporter-columnist Jennifer Jackson can be reached at jjackson@olypen.com.
