Ryan was born on May 2, 1984 at the Kaiser Permanente hospital in San Diego. From very early he seemed to be an ‘old soul’. He also had some peculiar traits parallel to his deceased Grampa Joe, and his first word was “oye!” He grew up with his older brother, Josh, whom he always loved, and as children fought with and played with.

I will always carry with me our trips to Disneyland and family vacations. I remember entering Carlsbad Caverns when he was about six and his eyes grew wide as he exclaimed, “It’s like walking inside a geode”. We have wonderful memories of our time spent together. Ryan enjoyed collecting things, most of all comic books, which led him to his love of going to the ComiCon. He went every year since he was in Jr. HS. A great sadness, after he knew he was terminal, was that he’d not only never go to another Con, but that he was unable to get tickets for the Con last year. Cherri, a 2nd mom (among a few) to him was able to get tickets for he and Kaori. Although he was only strong enough to go for one day and in a wheelchair at that – it was a wonderful experience for him and meant so much. Ryan’s beautiful smile will stay with us for eternity. He and his brother are the light of our lives.

Although Ryan was a loving and kind person, he had a temper - brought upon by any type of unfairness - that he was not afraid to unleash. It was his passion for fairness that led him to become politically active during his graduate school years. He had a deep love of family and world history, as well as an appreciation for nature. He also loved to laugh loudly at jokes and funny TV programs…we can still hear the ring of his laughter.

He often said that elementary school was his favorite time in life, but once he reached graduate school – he really found himself and his niche. Ryan enjoyed his early school years at Benchley-Weinburger Elementary, but like most kids hated junior high school. He tolerated high school at Patrick Henry, although that is where he found his great love of history in Mrs. Swikert’s AP history class. He enjoyed Grossmont College And SDSU undergrad more, but as I said – it was in graduate school where he really found his passion for history and education. Soon after transferring to SDSU, Ryan signed up for a Study Abroad program in Great Britain. This experience was not as promised, so he took the second semester off and toured Europe on his own. He learned much more in his travels than he did in the classroom.

After graduating with his B.A. degree in History, Ryan entered the SDSU History Department’s graduate school. But soon after beginning his studies, he began complaining of abdominal pain. After several months of being told he had an STD (simply because he was a young male student) and without any supporting evidence (all tests came back negative) they continued to prescribe stronger and stronger antibiotics. Months later, after demanding further tests be run, they found a “shadow” in his abdomen from a CT scan, and scheduled a surgery to investigate. They told him not to worry and finish his classes before having the endoscopic surgical biopsy. Sadly, the shadow was removed and diagnosed as DSRCT (desmoplastic round cell tumor), which is as a very rare, lethal form of cancer. He called us with the terrible news in July 2008. I still remember the horror of hearing his words – “I have cancer”. Thus began the 4-plus year fight against this horrible disease.

Ryan took a leave of absence from school and began a 6-month course of chemotherapy, which was developed by a leading oncology surgeon at the Sloan-Kettering Hospital in NY with whom we consulted during his second round of treatment. The chemo, called the P-6 protocol because it was a cocktail of 6 chemical agents, came with horrible side effects. He was hospitalized several times during his first bout of chemo and we nearly lost him once to septicemia. Ryan suffered a great deal through those 6-months of chemo, but was ultimately announced to be “cancer free”! Further scans continued to pronounce him such.

Over the next couple years, Ryan recovered from chemo and returned to graduate school after most of his first cohort had graduated. He made a new set of friends and continued to work diligently toward his degree. He also began his relationship with Kaori Yamaguchi. After a couple years of dating they planned to marry and live in Japan where he wanted to teach after graduating. Ryan loved this period of his life; his friends at SDSU formed deep-seeded friendships that remain to this day. He made close friends from both his cohorts.

Then suddenly, Ryan began to feel abdominal pain again. The medical team tried to diagnose it by giving him a colonoscopy, which gave him C. diff, a potentially lethal bacterial infection. He lost quite a bit of weight due to the infection, but as he didn’t show significant improvement, a subsequent CT scan was ordered. Sadly, this scan showed his abdomen to be filled with new DSRCT tumors. The monster had returned! We were told that the recurrent disease allowed less than a 15% chance of survival. More chemo followed, with the caveat that there was little that could be done since no known chemical is effective against these rare tumors. After doing some research, Mala and Josh discovered that surgery helped a few survivors, so we began to demand surgery and found Dr. Lowy, a world-renowned expert at UCSD medical center. Sadly, Lowy refused to do the surgery because he felt there was too little chance of success with no known chemo agent available to use with the surgery. Mala was eventually able to convince Lowy to do the surgery anyway, but by the time he agreed – it was too late. He left about 25% of the tumors inside Ryan and closed him up. We were devastated, knowing that leaving any tumor behind meant Ryan was now terminal. Sadly, there is evidence that if Lowy had done the debulking surgery immediately upon finding the second round of tumors (not putting him through more useless chemo)– he might still be with us today.

Once we knew that he was terminal, Kaori finished up her schooling in Japan and moved here to the U.S., leaving behind her family, friends, and work to be with Ryan. They were married on their 3rd year anniversary. A testament to what love can bring into our lives. She will be returning to Japan in the near future, but is with us at this time of sorrow.

Ryan fought with great courage and strength, but lost his fight with cancer on December 30, 2012. During the final months he said, “I love everyone”, meaning all of his friends and family – and he did. He also told us he has “no regrets” in his life. How many of us can claim that? The only thing he regretted was not having the last bit of time to finish up his thesis. He was sad that he’d not achieve his master’s degree that he had worked so hard for. However, shortly after we realized that he was terminal and would not be able to return to school, his advisor and mentor – Dr. L. Baron worked his magic and pushed his degree through. Dr. Baron’s comment to me was that he “knew Ryan would have finished if he could have.” For that we are all eternally grateful. When Dr. Baron called me and told me what he had done I sobbed. When I shared the news with Ryan so did he. He lived a life of love, commitment to issues of fairness, and loyalty to family and friends. He deserved so much more. The world is a little darker in his absence and a little brighter in the light that he shed on us all. He is an inspiration to us all. We love you and miss you deeply Ryan!