Thomas Fortune Ryan
| Thomas F. Ryan | |
|---|---|
Thomas Fortune Ryan in the 1910s
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| Born |
October 17, 1851 Nelson County, Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | November 23, 1928 (aged 77) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Financier |
| Net worth | US$155 million at the time of his death (approximately 1/633rd of US GNP) |
| Political party | Democrat |
| Spouse(s) | 1) Ida Mary Barry (1854–1917) 2) Mary Townsend Nicoll Lord Cuyler |
| Children | 1) John Barry (1874–1942) 2) Thomas Fortune, Jr. (1876–1882) 3) William Keane (1878–1906) [1] 4) Allan Aloysius (1880–1940) 5) Clendenin James (1882–1939) 6) Mary Loretta (1884–1888) 7) Joseph James (1890–1920) [2] |
Thomas Fortune Ryan (1851–1928) was an American tobacco, insurance and transportation magnate. Although he lived in New York City for much of his adult career, Ryan was perhaps the greatest benefactor of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond in the decades before the Great Depression. In addition to paying for schools, hospitals and other charitable works, Ryan's donations paid for the construction of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Richmond, Virginia. Ryan also made significant donations to Catholic institutions in New York City and Washington, D.C.
Thomas Fortune Ryan was born on October 17, 1851, near Lovingston, Virginia, the county seat of Nelson County. Despite a myth promulgated by Cleveland Amory regarding his background, Ryan was neither orphaned nor penniless as a youth, nor did his ancestors flee the Potato Famine as did many who worked on or rode his streetcars. Rural Virginia where Ryan grew up attracted few of those emigrants. Ryan's father was a tailor and managed a small hotel. He traced his ancestry to Protestant Anglo-Irish settlers who came to North America in the seventeenth century.
Ryan's mother, Lucinda Fortune Ryan, died in 1856 when he was five years old. His father remarried and moved to Tennessee two years later. Ryan was raised as a Protestant by his mother's extended family in Lovingston, south of Charlottesville in Virginia's Piedmont. Local Baptist ministers taught the youth to read and write, but Ryan did not attend college. Before the American Civil War, Ryan and his younger brother owned three slaves.
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