Dorothy Ryan, a popular activist in 1960s and ’70s Greenwich Village, passed away on Sept. 30, in Dennis, Massachusetts, where she had lived since 2012. She died peacefully in her sleep, surrounded by family. She was 87.
Dorothy came to the Village in the early 1950s from Hartford, Connecticut. She and her husband, Paul, became involved with a group of writers and actors.
In the 1960s, while raising her three children, Dorothy was politically involved at the grassroots level. She was known for having passionate convictions and being a champion for various community-oriented issues. She marched in the Women Strike for Peace in 1961 to oppose the Vietnam War. Dorothy also helped organize the first teach-in against the war at New York University.
In 1973, she was a strong advocate for renovating the Women’s Detention Center at Sixth and Greenwich Aves. for use as a recreational center that could serve both the young and the old.
As Reed Ide, the then-editor of The Villager, recalled of the debate in an article for the paper’s 75th anniversary, “Dorothy Ryan, anti-demolition, wrote to the editor, ‘It would seem that the “haves” of Greenwich Village continuously dictate to the “have-nots” what they should not have!… This building…can be put to good use for desperately needed facilities for our senior citizens… .’ ”
However, members of the Manhattan borough president’s administration sought to demolish the prison. It was eventually razed and the site turned into a community garden.
In 1975, Dorothy organized the Children’s March on Jefferson Market Library to protest library budget cuts. More than 300 children from the community participated.
Fiercely independent, she helped form the New Village Democrats in 1978. The club later merged with the West Side Democratic Club to oppose Mayor Ed Koch’s Village Independent Democrats, who Dorothy believed catered to a small elite.
Dorothy served three terms as president of Community School Board 2, from 1973 to 1981. She was also instrumental in helping to conceive and launch Mario Cuomo’s bid for mayor of New York City in 1977.
In 1982, in a bold move, she ran against 12-year incumbent City Councilmember Carol Greitzer but lost.
She had affiliations with the Chelsea-Village N.A.A.C.P, Friends of Public Libraries and Friends of Christopher Park.
Dorothy did administrative work at the Children’s Aid Society from 1984 until she retired in 1998.
Told of Ryan’s death, former Villager editor Ide said, “Dorothy Ryan was one of the last surviving stalwarts of a now-vanished era, a time when no item that arose in the life of Greenwich Village was too small to be fiercely debated. She cared deeply about her neighborhood, about her community. She served both exceptionally well: as a citizen, and as a member of Community School Board 2. She sometimes found herself on the losing side, but that did not once stop her from expressing firmly, often eloquently, her concerns and opinions. I can still hear her tempered anger in the debate over the Women’s House of Detention. I have lost an old friend. Greenwich Village has lost a lover. When we seem to need it most, we have all lost a valued citizen’s voice.”
She is survived by her daughters, Suzanne Ryan of Dennis, Mass., and Bronwyn Ryan of New York City, and a son, Connolly Ryan, and daughter-in-law, Maryellen, of Florence, Mass. She is also survived by three grandchildren, Charlie, 13, and Sarah and Phoebe, both 11. Dorothy was predeceased by her husband, Paul Ryan, who died in 2011.
