Brother Leo V. Ryan, C.S.V.
Brother Leo V. Ryan, C.S.V. Endowed Scholarship in Management
Brother Leo V. Ryan, C.S.V, was appointed dean of the (then) DePaul University College of Commerce and professor of management on Sept. 1, 1980. After of tour in the U.S. Army Infantry and service in the central pacific with Joint Task Force 1 testing the atomic bomb from 1945-1947, he graduated from the Marquette University College of Business with a B.A. in business administration in 1949. Upon graduation, he entered the Clerics of St. Viator in Chicago. Brother Leo was no stranger to DePaul. After taking vows in March 1950, he attended the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in philosophy and the School of Education for teaching credentials. In 1953, he graduated in the second DePaul MBA class.
Brother Leo taught high school in Springfield and Peoria, Ill., before earning his Ph.D. in management at Saint Louis University in 1958. Brother Leo served as associate dean of business at Marquette from 1957-1965. He was chair of management at Loyola University Chicago in fall 1965, when he was selected to be director of the Peace Corps in Nigeria from 1966-1968.
He was elected assistant general of the Clerics of St. Viator in Rome, where he served from 1968-1970, at which time he returned to Chicago to serve as provincial councilor and superintendent of Viatorian high schools from 1980-1985. In 1972, he became president of St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights, Ill. In 1975, he was named dean of the College of Business at the University of Notre Dame, where he served until 1980.
From 1980-1989, Brother Leo served as dean of College of Commerce at DePaul. Upon retirement as dean, the Advisory Council established the Brother Leo V. Ryan, C.S.V, Scholarship. After a sabbatical year at Cambridge University in England, he returned as professor of management. While teaching at DePaul, he also taught 10 years part-time at the Helsinki School of Economics, International BBA Program, in Mikkili, Finland.
In summer 1990, he received a Kosciuszko Fellowship at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland. A three-year Fulbright Professorship at Adam Mickiewicz University allowed Brother Leo to introduce the first American business curriculum taught in English in any Polish university from 1993-1995. From 1993-1999, he taught fall semesters at Adam Mickiewicz University, and winter and spring quarters at DePaul.
In 1999, he retired at DePaul. He was named professor emeritus and given the Via Sapientiate Award, DePaul’s highest faculty award in 1999. He continued teaching another eight years at the Poznan University of Economics MBA program, introducing business ethics and human resource management. In 2007, he retired from university teaching. The Polish government awarded him a Medal of Merit for his “contributions to cultural and educational development to modern Poland.”
Seton Hall University awarded him a L.L.D in 1988; St. Edmund’s College named him a fellow in 1992; Benedictine University awarded him a D.H.L. in 1997. He is author or co-editor of eight books, and more than 500 articles on business ethics, Polish political and economic development, and travel. He has been co-presenter of 51 national and international professional papers on Polish economic and political transformation.
Brother Leo has been recipient of many awards and recognitions for his life as academic, administrator, professor and research scholar.