About Tim Ryan
Tim's Dad, center, with four oldest sons. From left, Tim, Mike, Archie and Jeff.
The Ryan family in 2008. From left to right Colman, Brendan, Debbie, Tim, Johanna and Catriona (bottom right), together with Tipper and Bridget.
Tim Ryan, 52, is an attorney and former State Representative from Dania Beach. A lifelong resident of Broward County, Tim Ryan was born in 1956 at Broward General Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, the third of seven children born to Johanna Betty and A.J. Ryan, Jr.
Tim follows in a long family tradition of public service. His father served in the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate from 1956 to 1967, and his grandfather, A.J. Ryan, Sr., served on both the Dania Beach City Commission and Hollywood City Commission in the 1920s and on the Port Everglades Commission in the 1930s. Tim's grandmother, Genevieve Ryan, was the first woman to be realtor of the year in the state of Florida in 1958 and was elected national president of the American Legion Women's Auxiliary in 1965.
It is no surprise, then, that Tim got an early start in politics - he was elected student council president while attending Little Flower School in Hollywood. A 1974 graduate of Chaminade High School (now Chaminade-Madonna), he excelled both as a student and as an athlete, participating in football and track and field. The pole vaulting record that Ryan set as a senior still stands, 34 years later.
Tim went on to earn his bachelor's degree in Business Administration with high honors, as well as a law degree from the University of Florida. In 1981, he joined the family law firm, Ryan & Ryan, which was founded by his father in 1955.
In 1987, Tim married the former Debra Lynn Miller of Miami. The couple has four children - University of Florida freshman Johanna, 18, Brendan, 15, Colman, 10, and Catriona, 7. Four of Tim's five brothers live in Broward County - Archie and Chris are also attorneys with Ryan & Ryan, while Michael is a stock broker, and John is a realtor with the family's real estate firm, A.J. Ryan Realty. Jeff is a fundraiser for the Florida Democratic Party in Tallahassee. Their sister, Liz, manages her husband's, Joe McCain, MD., oral surgery practice in Miami.
Before being elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1998, Tim was active in a number of community service organizations, including the Dania Beach Community Improvement Council, the Fort Lauderdale Jaycees, the Broward County Guardian Ad Litem program and the Dania Beach Rotary. He has earned recognition while serving as Special Counsel for the City of Dania Beach for the past 20 years, and received the Florida Teaching Profession "Friend of Education" award and the Florida Bar President's Pro Bono award for his volunteer services.