[3] He attended the University of Washington in Seattle under the V-12 Navy College Training Program, completed midshipmen's school at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, and graduated with a commission as an ensign in 1944.

Ryan served the remainder of World War II in the Pacific Theater aboard the USS Merrick.

While in the state senate, Ryan took a particular interest in modernizing the Idaho judiciary and served as Chairman of the Joint Commission of the Idaho Legislature which instituted sweeping reform by reorganizing and modernizing the state judicial system, creating a court administration, and forming the Idaho Judicial Council.

After serving as campaign director for Senator Jim McClure in 1978, McClure recommended Ryan to President Ronald Reagan in July 1981 to fill a seat on the U.S. District Court vacated by Judge Raymond McNichols.

[7] Ryan served as Chief Judge from 1988 to 1992, then assumed senior status on December 30, 1992, and continued until his death from cancer on April 10, 1995.