By Melissa Wagoner
If you live in Mount Angel, there is a good chance you are acquainted with Ross Ryan. Maybe you’ve seen him wearing his signature duster and fingerless gloves, riding his bicycle on the road to Silverton – where he grew up, and where many of his family members reside to this day.
Or perhaps you’ve seen him at Oktoberfest, enjoying his favorite festival of the year, Mountain Dew in hand. But the most likely place you’ve seen Ross – especially if you pass the intersection of North Main and East Charles streets at around 7:30 a.m. – is on “Ross’s Corner” playing air guitar as if the world was his stage.
“It was so from his heart,” Karra Plummer, co-owner of the neighboring Chic Skape coffee shop, said. “I’ve heard from multiple people that they loved seeing him in the morning.”
But passersby weren’t the only ones who were excited to see Ross each day. Scott and Kristi Stokley, the owners of nearby Lou’s Kitchen, where Ross kicked off his day by “sneaking” into the kitchen pre-dawn – enjoyed their daily interactions with him as well.
“Ross was the type of guy you get to know and then pretty soon he’s part of your family,” Scott said. “With Lou’s Kitchen he was there every morning at six. He gets into this routine and pretty soon he’s a part of your every day. Not too many people can do that.”
And Ross was committed. Rain or shine he showed up to see his favorite people at his favorite places, lending a hand whenever he could.
“Every morning, he was here before we were. He always helped us get the wheelbarrows out the door,” Greg Beyer, owner of Bochsler’s Hardware, said. “I looked forward to seeing him in the morning, to see what his subject matter was for the day. He knew more about politics than me.”
That’s largely because Ross’s job, as policy director for the Oregon Self Advocacy Coalition (OSAC), required him to meet with politicians across the country advocating for the rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities just like his.
“Ross had something called Russell-Silver syndrome,” Ross’s younger brother, Lance, said of the rare genetic disorder Ross had lived with since his birth on Feb. 20, 1969 and which had caused him both physical and intellectual delays.
But those challenges did not hold Ross back. One of the founders of OSAC, Ross changed the lives of many through his work, which included testifying in the class action lawsuit, Lane v. Brown. The case, which was filed in 2012, charged the State of Oregon with violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by isolating individuals with disabilities – including Ross himself – in sheltered workshops and paying them less than minimum wage.
“Ross was so capable, and he enjoyed working… but he was like what’s the deal?” Ryley Newport, a Policy Analyst with the Office of Developmental Disabilities Services who collaborated with Ross, said.
And so, Ross joined that fight and many that followed.
“He had a very strong voice,” Newport said. “For us in Oregon he was a rockstar, he was the one you leaned on…in rooms it was hard to share in… When you talked with Ross or heard him fight you couldn’t have disagreed. He would say I really want people’s lives to be better, here’s how we do it… He also had the ability to show up to something hard or boring and Ross would make it fun. I’d ask, why are you so much more excited to be here? And he’d say, I had to fight to be here. And it’s true. He had to fight to be in the room. He never took that for granted.”
Nor did Ross take for granted his own independence, which he maintained by living alone for most of the past 30 years.
“He wanted to move out and live on his own,” Lance said of his brother’s transition from the home in Silverton he had shared with his parents and three siblings since 1988 to one four miles down the road. “Mount Angel has such a great community and support for those with developmental disabilities.”
It was there that Ross met his partner Joan Haag – who died of cancer in 2023 – and her twin sister Judy.
“Joan, Judy and Ross were always palling around,” Scott said.
The relationship was so close that it was Judy who – when she came to Lou’s Kitchen for breakfast on Easter Sunday without Ross – divulged to the Stokleys that he had been injured in a terrible fall.
“She said, Ross fell and broke his neck,” Kristi recalled.
Shocked, the Stokleys thought they must have heard wrong, but as the story unfolded it turned out that Judy was correct. An employee of Beloved Cheesecakes for over two years, Ross had been working in the bakery’s booth at the Salem Easter Fest on March 31 when, carrying a cooler, he tripped, falling into a parked car. He was later transported to Salem Hospital.
“We headed to see him on Easter,” Karra said.
She wasn’t alone. Friends poured into Ross’s hospital room to say their goodbyes, including Greg who said, “I couldn’t quite believe it when I heard. But I did make it to the hospital on Monday. I figured it was respectful.”
So many people arrived to pay their respects during the four days that preceded Ross’s death on April 3, that Lance found himself both humbled and honored on his brother’s behalf.
“Ross was just so integrated and such a part of the fabric of these communities,” Lance said. “He liked to kind of be the life of the party and be in the limelight… It made me take some perspective on myself to make sure I do half as good a job as Ross did.”
And Ross’s impact has continued. An organ donor, he immediately gifted lifesaving organs to four unknown strangers.
“Ross was always one of those people who wanted to help others,” Lance said of the donation, “whether through his advocacy or his work. He had so many circles, I’m sure he would be excited to help others.”
A memorial took place in Ross’s honor on April 19 at St. Mary’s Catholic Church – where Ross had been a longtime parishioner. Another, less formal celebration will be held throughout the city of Mount Angel on Friday, May 10, 5 to 8 p.m.
“We’ll have a rock band and give out Mountain Dew,” Karra said.
Then later in the year, during Oktoberfest, Ross’s OSAC coworkers plan to honor him by wearing T-shirts adorned with his photo.
“It will say, ‘badass advocate and warrior’,” Ross’s OSAC supervisor, Gabrielle Guedon, said. “Because that’s what he was to so many people around the nation.”
And in his own hometown.
“[T]he boundary between community and friend and family, those were blurred. Ross checked all of those boxes for us,” Charlie Hall, Deputy Chief of the Mount Angel Police Department, said. He recalled the hundreds of interactions he had with Ross over the years.
“In the police department we looked forward to seeing him. We called it Ross’ Corner… We felt like he was our Ross. He was just a good person. He was happy being himself. I admired that about him. I feel like there’s so many people that had special connections with him. I’m sure those ripples will be felt for a while.”
