Remembering a Ram: Dr. Natalie Ryan

It is with immense shock and sadness that we bear the news of the loss of one of our own, Professor Natalie Ryan. Ryan was a faculty member of Angelo State University’s department of English and modern language and uplifted the lives of many around her. 

Ryan, 55, was found fatally shot allegedly by her husband Wayne Sydeney Fraser the morning of Dec. 30. This is an ongoing investigation.

Dr. Erin Ashworth-King, professor and department chair of English and modern languages, shared a tribute:

"Professor Ryan was a dynamic teacher, very full of spirit and life. She firmly believed that her students could not only rise to the challenge of the collegiate classroom but empowered her students to narrate their own experiences and their own lives through writing.  She was a witty and honest faculty member whom I always enjoyed speaking with in the department – one always with a hilarious observation about current events, a delightfully satiric quip about the state of higher education, or a wonderfully infectious laugh that you could hear down the hall.  She was a determined and vibrant woman and she will be missed dearly in the department."

ASU president and retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronnie Hawkins also paid homage to the late professor:

"Natalie was a senior instructor in the department of English and modern languages and made an impact on the lives of countless students. On behalf of ASU leadership, we extend our deepest sympathy and support to her family, friends and co-workers during this difficult time. Natalie made a difference in the lives of many and will be missed."

 

Ryan's students collectively viewed her as having an abundance of humor and a bright personality. She was said to be young at heart and challenged her students to bring out the very best of their abilities while understanding and ensuring they knew that she cared. She was honest and straightforward with them and made learning rewarding and worthwhile. 

“This just doesn't seem real,” Kristopher Ryan, Ryan's brother, said.  “She will be dearly missed. This is just so difficult to swallow. She was definitely one of a kind. Just such a senseless tragedy.”

Susan White, Ryan's stepsister, had these words to share with us:

"What I found so remarkable about her was her tenacity. She possessed the spirit of a warrior, all the while looking like a million bucks no matter the occasion. The immensity of her being taken is deep and inconsolable for many. For me personally, on days when I feel my eyes swelling with tears and the lump in my throat holding back those tears, I choose to envision Natalie free and healed. Natalie was a free spirit and an old soul. So I close my eyes and imagine she's running in the green grass of Ireland laughing and soaring high above the crashing waves of the Cliffs of Moher. I see her laying in fields of clover reading James Joyce or Oscar Wilde: her feet bare and dancing to Celtic folk ballads all the while smiling. Then my throat releases my tears as I thank her for living. Natalie was born near St. Patrick's Day, so I ask to remember her on this day and celebrate her life and memory. I don't believe she would want us to cry. I believe she would want us to live, love and learn entirely without fear."

Her final resting place will be in Ireland, where her father's family originally immigrated from. Her ashes will be spread over its sweeping hills where the road will rise to meet her, the wind to her back and the sunshine warm upon her face.

It is never easy to be faced with the end of someone's life, especially when that person has lit the fires in hearts and touched the souls of as many as Ryan had in her time with us. In times such as these, we must come together to hold each other up and remember to celebrate her life, history and what once was while we grieve. She will be dearly missed by everyone here in the Ram Family.

“You can open for me the portals of death's house, for love is always with you, and love is stronger than death is,” Oscar Wilde, Irish poet and playwright, said.