Clendenin J. Ryan

Clendenin James Ryan, Jr. (1905 - September 12, 1957) was an American businessman best known as the publisher and owner of The American Mercury magazine, published in Baltimore, Maryland in the early 1950s.

Ryan once served as an assistant to Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia of New York City, ran for New York mayor himself on an independent ticket and later campaigned for New Jersey Governor. Ryan served in the United States Navy during World War II under Admiral James Forrestal.

He and Godfrey Stillman Rockefeller were in the Enterprise Development Corporation, a closed end investment trust for the heirs of William Rockefeller and Thomas Fortune Ryan, Clendenin's entrepreneurial grandfather, who invested heavily in Copper Mining and ore smelting. The Directors of EDC included Ryan, Frederic W. Lincoln, Jr., who married into the Rockefeller family, and Morehead Patterson of American Machine and Foundry (AMF).

Ryan committed suicide at the age of 52 in 1957.