Ryder, Clayton

Description

Clayton Ryder was born on September 17, 1923, in Rye, New York, to Anne Beatrice Brake, age 27, and Morton Ryder. He had two sisters and in Rye his family lived at 1 Grandview Avenue. Clayton attended Rye
Country Day School, Loomis, and
completed one and a half years at
Cornell University before entering the
Army in March 1943. At Cornell he
was a three letter man in his freshman year.

Clayton served as an officer in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. He was a pilot in the 15th Air Force flying a B-24 Liberator.

Lieut. Clayton Ryder Pilot On Liberator Bomber Blasting Germany 15th AAF IN ITALY-

Pilot of a 15th Air Force Liberator, Ryder was on a recent mission against the railyards and refineries at Brux, Germany. Hiding deep in the Great Liberator formation as it soared at altitude above the Adriatic. Ryder was making his third mission. We had been climbing to get above the weather. He said. The formation was having trouble hanging together. At times the soup was so thick we couldn’t see our own wing tips. I don’t call that very comfortable formation weather. We were at 16,006 and climbing when my No. 1 engine ran away. We were coming over the Yugoslavia coastline. The engine was thrashing like a cement mixer. I tried to feather the propeller but couldnt and finally we cut the ignition.

About that time my No. 2 engine started smoking. continued Ryder, I knew that if we tried to make Italy wed all be dunking in the Adriatic. My navigator gave me a heading towards an emergency landing strip, we called in the Sight Control and they told us to come on in. By this time we were down to 4,000-feet and losing altitude. We spotted the strip but before I started my approach tried to unfeather No. 1 to pick up airspeed. The engine wouldnt respond and then No. 2 quit so there we were with two engines on the right side and only my prayers on the left. We landed her somehow but I hope I never have to sweat out that nightmare again.

PAGE SIX THE RYE CHRONICLE Friday, January 26, 1945



Clayton received his honorable discharge October 22, 1945 and returned to Rye.

Clayton was a proud member of Cornell University’s Class of 1945, graduating in 1947 following two years of service in the United States Army Air Corps as a B-24 Pilot in WWII’s Atlantic Theater. He married Joan Maureen Coffey April 23, 1949 and had three sons and three daughters.

He was employed in marketing and sales for General Electric’s Electronics Division in New York City, Schenectady, Boston and Syracuse. This was followed by many years as Director of Marketing-Electronics for Allen-Bradley in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and then Regional Manager for Cahners Publishing Company in Des Plaines, Illinois. Clayton was a member of Unitarian Universalist Church West in Brookfield.

Clayton loved Big Band music, playing golf with his family, writing poetry, singing (with his high school Glee Club at Loomis and with the Harwood Place Chorus) and, thanks to his voluminous vocabulary, being a master of the crossword puzzle. An animated and engaging storyteller, his recollections of summers at Yosemite National Park, his years rowing for Cornell’s Crew team and WWII missions out of Northern Italy will be etched in our memories forever.

A warm, generous, welcoming, unassuming and intelligent man with a keen sense of humor, Clayton was, above all, kind, with a smile that lit up the room. He cherished and championed his family, welcoming each new addition with open arms. To his core, he was an egalitarian and walked that talk without waver: He and Joan supported innumerable causes that forwarded the ideals they so believed in-human rights and liberties, fairness and justice. There are no words to express the depth to which he will be missed. Clayton’s family wishes to thank the wonderful Harwood Place residents and staff for their friendship, especially in these five years since Joan’s passing.

Clayton Ryder II, 94, of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, passed peacefully on December 15, 2017, surrounded by his family. He was preceded in death by his deeply loved wife of 63 years Joan Maureen Ryder (nee Coffey).

Greatly loved father of Jeff (Myrna) Ryder, Tim (Jan) Ryder, Jen (Tony) Raabe, Ky (Kelley) Ryder, Libby (Mark) Simones and Sue (Kathleen) Ryder, and proud grandfather to Katie, Emily (Michael), Peter, Clay, Zak, Will, Brennen and Joe. Clayton was also survived by his beloved sister Connie Ryder Smith of White Plains, New York, and many cherished nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents Morton and Anne Ryder and his sister Diane Ryder, sisters-in-law Betty Reynolds and Doris Karpuk and brothers-in-law Al Smith, John Reynolds and Andrew Karpuk.