Former Governor George Ryan Dies at 91
George Ryan in 1998. (Photo: Chicago Tribune)
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George H. Ryan, the Kankakee pharmacist who had a 30-year Springfield career from the Illinois House, to House Speaker, to Lt. Governor, to Secretary of State, and a term as Governor of Illinois, but will forever be known for his federal conviction for racketeering, bribery, extortion, money laundering, and tax fraud and the 6 1/2 year prison sentence that went with it.
Ryan died Friday at the age of 91. His health had been in decline in recent weeks.
From Rick Pearson’s obituary in the Chicago Tribune:
George Homer Ryan served one term as Illinois governor, his scandal-clouded tenure and subsequent imprisonment on federal corruption charges overshadowing a nationally historic move to halt the state’s death penalty and empty its Death Row amid concerns of widespread misconduct in capital cases.
Ryan, a Republican whose 35-year public career spanned from local Kankakee County Board chairman, state legislator, Illinois House Speaker, lieutenant governor, secretary of state and ultimately Illinois’ 39th governor from 1999-2003, died Friday in a hospice in his hometown of Kankakee, said former Illinois House GOP leader Jim Durkin. Ryan was 91.
Ryan’s career was honed on old-school politics, reliant upon patronage and deal-making, as he also underwent an ideological metamorphosis that took him from hardline rural conservatism to more pragmatic progressive policymaking. Such was the case in moving from capital punishment supporter to placing a moratorium on the death penalty.
Ryan’s bonafides as a conservative had been such that Republican Gov. James R. Thompson selected him as his running mate in 1982, believing he needed Ryan’s conservative credentials to balance his own liberalism in seeking reelection.
Ryan’s visitation is Monday evening. His funeral is Wednesday in Kankakee.
