Former Illinois attorney general, gubernatorial candidate Jim Ryan dies at 76

Jim Ryan, who served two terms as Illinois Attorney General and lost to Rod Blagojevich in a 2002 gubernatorial bid, died Sunday.

He was 76.

A statement from his family said he died after several lengthy illnesses.

The Republican served as attorney general from 1995 to 2003. Ryan lost his first bid for the office to Roland Burris in 1990.

Ryan also ran for governor in 2010 but lost in a crowded Republican primary to State Senator Bill Brady of Bloomington. Brady lost the general election to Patrick Quinn.

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Ryan was a three-time cancer survivor who raised money for cancer research after he left office.

“Jim Ryan embodied what it meant to be a statesman," said Illinois Republican Party chairman Don Tracy of Springfield. "He always put the people of Illinois before politics and faithfully served this great state with honor and integrity as our attorney general. Jim overcame great personal tragedies and health difficulties to live an impactful public life as well as being a great husband, father, and grandfather."

In a Tweet, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul called Ryan a "great lawyer, leader and statesman (who) demonstrated a commitment to public service and public safety often overcoming personal adversity in order to do so."

Ryan told The State Journal-Register in 2009 he ran "a clean attorney general's office. I'm proud of my office. I put lots of people in jail, plenty of them, including people that committed public corruption."

But Ryan was criticized for his persistence, while DuPage County state's attorney, in prosecuting Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez for the 1983 abduction and murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico of Naperville Township. Cruz and Hernandez were eventually cleared after another man, Brian Dugan, admitted to the killing.

Two Springfield attorneys, Tim Gabrielsen and John Hanlon, worked on Cruz's case in post-conviction.

Marty Green, the vice president of government relations for the Illinois CPA Society in Springfield, worked in the attorney general's office from 1996 to 2003.

"He taught me how to be a better attorney and a better person just by being around him," said Green, a former executive assistant attorney general. "I knew if we took a legal issue to him, you knew he was going to ask questions. He was going to ask big questions and detailed questions and you better know the legal issues you were putting in front of him.

"Primarily, the job (as attorney general) constitutionally is to represent the people of Illinois in all litigation matters and he took that very, very seriously. He had bright people, good lawyers around him and he respected the frontline attorneys in the various divisions in the office for the work that they did.

"He was very much committed to serving the people of Illinois as the chief legal officer. It could be as big as the tobacco case (Illinois was part of a nationwide case and reaped $9.1 billion) or helping citizens with a consumer case or it could be helping states attorneys and law enforcement with criminal justice issues."

As state’s attorney, Ryan established himself as an advocate for children, creating the state’s first center for victims of child abuse.

Ryan, who was born in Chicago, endured a string of personal tragedies and challenges in his life, including the deaths of two of his six children.

Ryan's youngest daughter, Anne Marie, died at the age of 12 in 1997 of an undiagnosed brain tumor, family said. A son, Patrick, died at the age of 24 in 2007.

Ryan is survived by his wife, Marie, who was also his high school sweetheart, and four children. He also has 11 grandchildren.

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Jim Ryan, former Illinois attorney general, dies at 76