Edmund B. (Ed) Ryan Jr. transitioned to eternal life at the age of 69 Dec. 28, 2022, after declining health following a stroke in 2020.
Ed was born in Red Bank and graduated from Red Bank Catholic in 1971, where he excelled in basketball. He began his college studies at North Carolina State and Brookdale Community College, and graduated with a degree in business from Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida. Ed began farming at a young age and his path led to a career with the United States Department of Agriculture, with posts throughout the South and eventually to northern Vermont, where he worked as a USDA supervisor as an agricultural border inspector. Mid-career Ed returned to his passion of farming and opened a farm stand in Colts Neck where he sold vegetables, flowers, pumpkins, Christmas trees, and his legendary tomatoes, then returning to USDA.
After retirement in 2011, Ed continued farming in Vermont on a smaller scale, growing a variety of summer vegetables. His hobbies included fishing, boating and spending time with family. When his health declined Ed moved to North Carolina to be in the care of his sisters and brother-in-law.
Ed was predeceased by his father Edmund B. Ryan. He is survived by his mother Marion Ryan of Little Silver, sisters Suzanne Ryan Souto of Shallotte, North Carolina, Karen Ryan Bonfield and husband Tom of Sunset Beach, North Carolina, Marianne Ryan Gillette and husband Robert of Johnsburg, New York, and brother Christopher Ryan and wife Heather of Enola, Arkansas. He is also survived by nieces and nephews including Jackson Souto, Carol Bottiggi, Thomas and Craig Bonfield, Megan DeMeyer, and Brendan, James, Caleb and Daniel Ryan.
Ed loved spending time in the summer in the Adirondack Mountains with his mother, siblings, cousins, nieces and nephews. He will be missed by all of us.
Funeral arrangements will be through Thompson Funeral Home, Red Bank, with interment in Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Middletown.
The article originally appeared in the January 5 – 11, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
