Clendenin James Ryan, Jr.

Clendenin James Ryan Jr. (July 16, 1905 – September 12, 1957) before marrying John K. Shaw Jr. Stuart K. Hotchkiss, and Calvin Pardee Foulke). His father committed suicide by gas poisoning on August 21, 1939.

His maternal grandfather was George Francis O'Neil and his paternal grandparents were Thomas Fortune Ryan and Ida Mary ( Barry) Ryan (a daughter of John Smith Barry, a prosperous dry goods merchant who mentored his grandfather). In 1922, his uncle, banker Allan A. Ryan, declared bankruptcy with liabilities of $32,435,477.28 and assets of $643,533 in what was described as "the biggest failure in New York in recent years, and one of the biggest on record." Through Allan, he was a first cousin of New York State Senator Allan A. Ryan Jr. Upon the death of his grandfather in 1928, he inherited a part of the fortune of more than $141,000,000 left in trust.

In 1950, Ryan headed a group that purchased The American Mercury magazine, published in Baltimore, Maryland, from Lawrence Spivak which Ryan renamed The New American Mercury.

Personal life In 1935, Ryan was introduced to Countess Maria Anna Paula Ferdinandine von Wurmbrand-Stuppach (1914–2003), known as Etti, by Prince Chlodwig Hohenlohe. By their third date, Ryan proposed to her and they were married on February 20, 1935, in Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York. Mayor Fiorello La Guardia was best man. The marriage only lasted three months; they divorced in July 1935 and she returned to Europe with "a settlement of only $35,000."

In 1937, he married Jean Harder (1915–1991), a daughter of George Achilles Harder Sr., a Titanic survivor and, his first wife, Dorothy ( Annan) Harder. Jean, whose younger half-brother was actor James Harder, attended the Ethel Walker School in Simsbury, Connecticut and at the time of their marriage, served on the staff of the Civic Information Bureau. At the time of their wedding, he was living at 834 Fifth Avenue. Together, they were the parents of:

Clendenin James Ryan III (1939–1978), who married Ann Johnson, a daughter of Thomas Johnson, in 1961 Robert Harder Ryan, Cyr Annan Ryan, president of Fiber Optic Systems, Inc. who married Mary Frances O'Hara in 1974 Caryn Ryan, who married Roger Wolcott Tuckerman in 1960; they later divorced Jean Ryan Sadler After his death, his 2,000 acre estate in Allamuchy, New Jersey was sold to Robert Conahay III.

Ryan committed suicide at the age of 52 in 1957 "in the same five-story, gray stone town house at 32 East Seventieth Street where his father, Clendenin James Ryan Sr., committed suicide by gas poisoning on August 21, 1939." After a funeral at St. Jean Baptiste Roman Catholic Church, located on Lexington Avenue at 76th Street, he was buried in the family plot at St. Andrew-on-Hudson in Poughkeepsie, New York. His net estate was valued at $689,686 in 1961. In 1969, his widow married William Shields Jr., a senior partner in the Coudert Brothers law firm.