Born: 1880-06-14 (Amsterdam, New York)
Died: 1946-11-16 (Jenkintown, PA)
Education:
Amsterdam, New York High School
1908 Trinity College, B. A.
1909 Yale University, M.A.
Taught:
Professor of History and Economics 1909-1917
Notes:
New Faculty (The Pharos 1909-10, p.160)
William James Ryland, the son of William and Sarah Jane
McGenniss Ryland, was born June 14, 1880, at Amsterdam, New
York. He prepared for college at the Amsterdam High School,
Amsterdam, New York, and entered Trinity in 1904 with the
class of 1908.
He was class historian in 1908, and graduated that year with
a B.A. degree and honors in history. He received his M.A. from
Yale the next year, and then returned for his Ph.D. degree which
he was awarded in 1930.
Dr. Ryland taught history and political science at West Vir-
ginia Wesleyan, Buckhannon, West Virginia, from 1909 to 1917.
After a year’s study at Yale he became assistant professor at Middle-
bury College, Middlebury, Vermont, until 1920, and then went
to Hamline University, St. Paul, Minnesota, as professor in charge
of the political science department.
In 1930 Dr. Ryland accepted the position of Professor of the
Social Sciences at Beaver College, Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. He
founded this department and was head of it at the time of his
death on November 16, 1946, in Jenkintown. The student body held
him in high regard, and have started a scholarship fund in his mem-
ory.
Dr. Ryland was the author of The Constitution Lives on, Alexan-
der Ramsay-A Study of a Frontier Politician, and had just com-
pleted Political Parties in the United States, which his widow hopes
to publish.
On June 29, 1911, at Albany, New York, Dr. Ryland married
Miss Clara Maggoner Carr. There were two children, Margaret
Eleanor and William James, Jr., who died on February 24, 1931. (Trinity College Bulletin, July 1947, Necrology, p.19)