Ronald A. Ryder passed away Aug. 2. He was born to Wendell M. Ryder and Florence (Ball) in Kansas City, Kans., on February 3, 1928.

He served in the Army 1945-46, then in the Navy 1951-54 on an attack cargo ship in the Far East, and then on an icebreaker in the Arctic. He met Audrey Teele while hiking with the Colorado Mountain Club when they both worked in Denver. They were married Labor Day weekend in 1955. He then served as a naval reservist, retiring as a Lieutenant Commander in 1974.

Dr. Ryder was professor of wildlife biology at Colorado State University and enjoyed summer positions and sabbatical leaves with his Audrey at University of British Columbia, College of Guam, Memorial University of Newfoundland, and Otago University in New Zealand, Iceland, Scandinavia and Egypt. He had more than fifty graduate students. After retirement he conducted numerous research projects including environmental impact studies for Rawhide Power Plant and wind turbines. He participated in Christmas Bird Counts for many years and numerous professional organizations.

Ron’s wife Audrey passed away in the fall of 2015. Ron is survived by his son Raymond of Tucson, and his daughter Helen and her husband Bill Phillips of Eaton, grandchildren John and Amy, his sister Mary of Galveston, and several nieces and nephews. Thank you to the wonderful staff at the Winslow, HomeInstead, Brookdale Fort Collins, Rocky Mountain Senior Care, and Halcyon Hospice.

Memorial service will be at 9:30 am., Thursday, Aug. 11, at First United Methodist Church in Fort Collins.

In lieu of flowers, the family encourages gifts to be made to the Ronald A. Ryder Scholarship Fund in hopes of endowing this memorial award in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation Biology. Please make checks payable to the CSU foundation at PO Box 1870, Colorado State University Foundation, Fort Collins CO, 80522, and specify Ron A. Ryder scholarship on the memo line.