Paul Welton Ryan, the youngest of the six children of Dr. Mark E. Ryan and Isabel M. Perry, was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on April 24, 1931. His primary education was at Nativity School, St. Paul, his home parish. After completing his secondary education at Cretin High School, St. Paul (1945-49), he attended Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa (1949- 5 l). Already in high school he had the desire to be a priest and a member of the Order of Preachers.

He entered the Dominican novitiate at St. Peter Martyr Priory, Winona, Minnesota, in August 1951, where he was given the religious name of Ferrer, and where on August 31, 1952, he made his first profession of vows. He pursued philosophical studies at the Dominican House of Studies, River Forest, Illinois (1952-55), and made his profession of solemn vows there on August 31, 1955. Because of the number of Dominican students in the Province at that time he was sent to the College of St. Albert, Oakland, California, for his first year of theology, and then returned to the Midwest to complete his years of theology at the College of St. Rose of Lima, Dubuque, Iowa (1 956-5 9). He was ordained a priest there on May 24, 1958.

His first assignment was to Fenwick High School, Oak Park, Illinois where for ten years he taught Latin, English and religion, and served as moderator of the yearbook and of the Black friars Guild, where his love for theater and mu sic found an outlet. In l 969 he was sent to Albuquerque, New Mexico, as an associate pastor at the Aquinas Newman Center, the first of several campus ministry assignments. The following year he returned to his native St. Paul where for two years he taught religion and English on the faculty of St. Thomas Academy. From 1972 until 1974 he was assistant chaplain at Methodist Hospital, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and an associate pastor at Most Holy Trinity Parish, St. Louis Park, Minnesota. In January 1978 Father Ryan moved to New Orleans, to serve as assist ant cha plain at East Jefferson General Hospital, Metairie, Louisiana. The following fall he moved to Hammond, Louisiana, where he became director of campus ministry at Southeastern Louisiana University. He continued in campus ministry at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa (1979-82) and at North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota (1982 -83). In 1983 he returned to his native Minnesota where he served in a number of parishes: St. John the Baptist, New Brighton (1983-88, 1989-92); St. Albert the Great, Minneapolis (1988-89); St. Andrew, Elk River (1 992); and St. Mary, Breckenridge (1 993). From 1993-98 he served in the Diocese of St. Cloud, Minnesota, as pastor of two parishes - Sacred Heart, Dent and St. Lawrence, Rush Lake (1993-96), and as parochial vicar at St. Mary Parish, Melrose (1997- 98). In 1 998 he returned to the Twin Cities and served for a time as parochial vicar at Immaculate Conception Parish, Columbia Heights, Minnesota.

In 1999 Father Ryan began what was to be his last assignment at St. Therese Southwest, a home for the elderly in Hopkins, Minnesota, where he continued to serve until his death. On the morning of October 23, 1999, he was involved in an automobile accident and was taken to Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. At the hospital while experiencing an asthmatic attack he suffered a heart attack and multiple strokes and lapsed into

unconsciousness. He remained in this condition until his death late on October 29, l 999. The funeral liturgy was celebrated on November 3, 1999, at St. Albert the Great Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and burial was in the Dominican Plot at St. Mary's Cemetery, Minneapolis.