Gary R. Ryan

Gary Ryan grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota during the 1950s, and due to a series of misadventures, spent most of his teenage years in and out of jails and reform schools. He was finding out about the dark side. His alcoholic father had disappeared early on, and the relationship with his stepfather was difficult and often violent. At twelve he was drinking and fighting, which soon led to auto thefts, robberies, and jail.

After serving nearly four years in the Minnesota State Prison system for a bum rap, at least so far as he was concerned, Gary decided the cards were stacked against him in Minnesota, and he moved out West, to sunny Southern California, working in a car wash and moonlighting as a bouncer for a Western bar. Realizing that education provided the surest means of economic advancement, Gary applied for and was accepted to an academic program at the Camarillo State Mental Hospital, acquiring a college degree and a reputation for success with patients on the acute psychotic intervention unit for adolescents. That dark side was coming in handy.

Gary now owns a construction company which employs men and women who are in recovery from drug and alcohol abuse. He is an accomplished artist and exhibits throughout Southern California, happily married and lives with his wife, Diane, just a few miles up the coast from Los Angeles.