Carol Ryan: May, 21, 1936 – October, 10, 2025

Carol Frances Crawford Ryan died October 10, 2025; she was born in Iowa City, Iowa on May 21, 1936 to Imogene Hoff Crawford and Ellis Crawford. She attended University High School and graduated with honors from the University of Iowa where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. While at Iowa she was a member of the Scottish Highlanders, a women’s bagpipe band. They traveled to ScoUand to play at the Edinburgh Music festival. She retained her love of bagpipe music throughout her life.

Carol married Lehan J.(Jay) Ryan in 1958. She is survived by Jay and their sons Dennis M. Ryan and his wife, Kelly, David L. Ryan and his wife, Nancy; her sister in law JoAnn Crawford, also two grandson Kevin L. Budrevich-Ryan and his wife Adassa, and Jackson R. Ryan. Her brother, Dean Crawford, predeceased her.

Carol completed her Master’s and phD at the University of Minnesota and was a faculty member and later Dean of the college of individual studies at Metropolitan State University in Minneapolis-St Paul. The excellence in Academic Advising award is given there each year in her name. Carol served as president of the national Advising Association for two years and was a member of the American Studies Association and the Oral History Association. She authored a number of articles and a book, STAR ISLAND, which was a collection of oral histories she collected on residents of a small island summer community in northern Minnesota.

In St Paul, she chaired the School Volunteer Committee and was president of the Community Planning Organization and the Junior League of St Paul. She was President of the Friends of the St Paul Library and a member of the vestry of St John the Evangelist (Episcopal) Church. She was an advocate for a battered women’s shelter in St Paul and sat on the governor’s Commission on the status of women in Minnesota.

In retirement on Whidbey Island, washington, Carol served as president of the Friends of the Langley Library, sat on the Langley city Library Board, was president of South Whidbey Historical Society, and a board member of the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts (WICA). She was a member of St Augustine’s in the woods Episcopal church. Carol loved the beauty and peace of the Island. Her favorite groups were her Mah Jong group and the Ladies of the Beach and the Senior Ladies of the Beach with whom she hiked many miles around the shores of Whidbey Island.

Funeral service at

St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church

Freeland 2:00 pm January 24, 2026,

Remembrance 1 :00 PM at church.