Seton Hill University honors philanthropist Catherine Murray Ryan
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Catharine Murray Ryan, a Pittsburgh philanthropist, academic and former chaplain, will be awarded Seton Hill University's highest honor this spring.
Mrs. Ryan will receive the Greensburg university's Elizabeth Ann Seton Medal, which has been awarded since 1959 to recognize outstanding leadership by women. Past recipients have included Dolores Hope, humanitarian and wife of Bob Hope; Lindy Boggs, Louisiana congresswoman and U.S. ambassador to the Holy See; and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, who was awarded the first medal upon the beatification of Elizabeth Ann Seton in 1963.
As part of the celebration of that 48th anniversary, the school is launching the Seton Hill University Alumni Association Endowed Scholarship Fund. The first award from the fund will be made in honor of Mrs. Ryan at a dinner at the Duquesne Club Downtown on April 25.
Mrs. Ryan was the second of 10 children born in Bronxville, N.Y. She earned a bachelor's degree in economics from the Newton (Mass.) College of the Sacred Heart in 1968 and a master's in pastoral ministry from the theology department at Duquesne University in 1993.
She was on the board of trustees of Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC for 13 years, joining in 1996 and succeeding her late father-in-law, who had been a trustee there for 40 years. She became a trustee of the board's fundraising arm, the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh Foundation, when it was formed in 2000 and served for three years as its chair.
In the early 1990s, she co-chaired fundraising efforts to build a new home for the Pittsburgh Oratory in Oakland (where she serves on the board) and the Newman Center, a campus ministry for students at Pitt, Carnegie Mellon and Chatham universities.
She also helped build the Gailliot Center for Newman Studies in Oakland, which hosts a library of the writings of John Henry Newman, a 19th-century Anglican leader who became a Catholic priest and cardinal. She also co-founded the National Institute for Newman Studies in Pittsburgh in 2003.
The institute is affiliated with Duquesne University and features the Ryan endowed chair for Newman studies, a position involving academic responsibilities at Duquesne and the directorship of the institute.
Mrs. Ryan was a chaplain for seven years at Magee-Womens Hospital and Forbes Regional Hospital and is chair of the advisory council to the school of philosophy at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
She moved to Pittsburgh with her family in 1969. Her husband John T Ryan III is the chairman and retired CEO of Mine Safety Appliances.
Correction/Clarification: (Published February 15, 2012) Catharine Murray Ryan's first name was misspelled in an article Tuesday about her being the recipient of Seton Hill University's Elizabeth Ann Seton Medal. The school in April will celebrate the 53rd anniversary of the award, which recognizes women whose achievements mirror the founder of the Sisters of Charity. Ms. Ryan also co-founded in Pittsburgh the National Institute for Newman Studies. The article incorrectly said the institute had its beginnings elsewhere.
First Published February 14, 2012 12:00 am
