Fr David Strong SJ, The Australian dictionary of Jesuit biography 1848-2015, Second Edition, 2017:
Ryan, Noel

Educationist, academic; born Fremantle, Western Australia, 11 December 1916; died Melbourne, Victoria, 2 September 1993, aged 76.

Noel Ryan's father was a chemist but died while Noel was still at school. A sister died young. Ryan's secondary education was at the Christian Brothers' College, Fremantle. His English teacher, Brother Duffy, inspired Ryan to a life long love of literature. He was an outstanding student. While at school he won three scholarships. One was a Hackett Bursary, which would have taken him to the University of Western Australia, but he did not accept the offer and stayed on at school to reflect upon his future. What attracted him to the Society of Jesus was its apostolic mission and its commitment to education. His vocation was strengthened by reading and conversation with a former novice Keith Spruhan.

Ryan entered the Society, 13 February 1935, and found the noviciate 'an intellectual desert', with insufficient mental stimulus. In 1937 Ryan began his arts degree at the University of Melbourne in English, Latin and Ancient History, studying from Loyola College, Watsonia. One year of this was followed by three years of philosophy. Afterwards he finished his university studies. He gained first class honours each year in English and finished his degree with prizes for achievement.

He spent four years in regency at St Louis School, Perth, teaching many subjects, including history, and his co-curricular activities included coaching games, organising the Sodality, and editing the school magazine, The Eagle. He also produced plays, the most famous being Twelfth Night for which he made even the props. In 1951, while at Newman College, Ryan wrote an MA thesis entitled, An Acting Edition of Twelfth Night for which he was awarded first class honours.

From 1947-50 Ryan studied theology at Canisius College, Pymble, where he spent much time reading. Vacations were especially good times to read many books. He spent 1951 at Newman College, and the following year he did tertianship under John Meagher.

For the next 15 years Ryan was prefect of studies to scholastics, first at Watsonia, 1953-6, then at Campion College, Kew. His work during these years included lecturing in English, Latin, psychology and pedagogy. To qualify himself for the professional work of teaching, Ryan studied and obtained the Diploma in Education from the University of Melbourne at a time when Jesuits retained the belief that general academic achievement was sufficient for specific education performance. Yet Jesuit superiors regularly admitted that some appointed Jesuit headmasters were incapable of performing even at an adequate level. Ryan completed the diploma with first class honours and the Dwight prize. During these years he also edited Province News and Hazaribagh.

When Campion College opened, Ryan commuted to Loyola College, Watsonia, as well, usually on his infamous motor-bike which he believed never ran out of petrol. One of the brothers filled it up without his knowing. There was another occasion when a priest borrowed the bike one afternoon and died in a tragic accident. When the policeman visited Loyola to report the accident, and the death of 'Noel Ryan', Ryan himself opened the door. 'It can't be possibly be me', he commented, 'I've been home all afternoon'.

He also continued with his studies in education, first for the bachelor of education and then for a doctorate. His topic for the latter was a research project on the university performance of graduates from Catholic schools at the end of the first year university compared with their matriculation results. His thesis was to prove that Catholic students performed better than other students at the university. Jesuit schools in Melbourne helped prove this thesis. The Campion College community assisted in the final writing of the thesis under great stress to meet its final deadline for submission.

After this work was completed Ryan began lecturing in the education faculties of the University of Western Australia, Monash University and the University of Melbourne. This prepared him for the next stage of his life, working in the field of the sociology of religion. He spent 1969 at the Cambridge Centre for Social Studies, USA, studying under such Harvard gurus as Talcott Parsons, and immersing himself in Weber.

Ryan was a professional educator who believed in the intrinsic importance of secular studies for religious. He introduced a new secularism into the life of the younger Jesuits that gave them an urbanity and integration into the secular world that distinguished them from other clerical or religious groups who remained largely ecclesiastical in outlook. His colleagues did not always appreciate his breadth of vision, but it succeeded in producing a generation of Jesuits who were more widely educated, and more at ease in the secular world than the previous generation had been.

Ryan was a highly respected scholar among academics in Melbourne in the fields of education and sociology. He was a gentle, kind, shrewd man, who observed much and said little. He spent little time eating or socializing, and with his pallid complexion, seemed to be the epitome of a healthy mind in an unhealthy body. He related well to people of other beliefs and was an advisor to the Church of Scientology when it was challenged about the validity of its claim to be a religious group. He was not a practical man, but was always most grateful for help given when he was in need. He was a true Jesuit scholar, showing others the way to influence the secular academic milieu.

(Reproduced by permission of Fr David Strong SJ.)