Wood Allen Ryder (November 10, 1884 – February 17, 1960), was an American artist, curator, and art professor.
[1] He has been credited as being, "largely responsible for the United States early interest in avant garde art".
[4] His father Morgan L. Ryder was a former trustee of the town of Berkeley and worked for the Southern Pacific freight trains.
[3] Among Ryder's pupils were artists Dorothy Rieber Joralemon, Robert Boardman Howard, Karl Kasten, James McCray, among others.
Hans Hofmann donated one of his own paintings to the university in memory of his friend and former student, and in 1963 Hofmann gave the university a major collection of his work and seed money toward creation of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.