Tom Ryan was a legendary Barberton “bureau” chief/reporter for the BJ.

 

He also is among those who survived the D-Day landing in France during World War II.

 

And a reporter who had a way with words. When he returned to Omaha Beach 40 years later he wrote this classic remembrance:

 

“I was able to find almost the exact spot on Omaha Beach where I landed 40 years ago. Going to the cemetery at the top of the hill was agony. I choked when I saw all of those white crosses and looked for the names of buddies who died there.

“Several days later, I got mugged and robbed of $100 on a busy Paris Street in broad daylight.

“That makes twice I've been to France and both times someone gave me a hard time. I've had it with that place.”

 

How did Tom handle the landing when 2,400 Americans from the 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions died in the D-Day invasion on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944? The troops were pinned down by the German 352nd Infantry Division because the German fortifications were undamaged by a pre-invasion bombing that fell inland.

 

Tom’s explanation:

 

“I just told myself I was dead man and jumped off into the water.”

 

Tom’s co-workers raised $2,100 in one day to pay for Tom’s return to Omaha Beach. And had a bottle of champagne waiting for him when he returned to America.

 

Tom was so determined to be on Omaha beach on June 6 that, when he couldn’t get closer transportation, he walked the last 14 miles, lugging his suitcase. Piece of cake after landing on Omaha Beach amid horrendous German gunfire.

 

When he arrived all the speeches and celebrations were over, but that didn’t matter to Tom. His target was standing on Omaha Beach as near as possible to where he landed.

 

His reaction when he stood on the beach that was so bloodied in 1944: “How the hell did I ever survive the landing?”

 

Tom climbed the hill to the nearby cemetery with about 10,000 white crosses.

 

“I almost choked when I saw them,” Tom wrote. “I cried, I think, because for the first time the memory of that day caught up with me.”

 

Tom also had another legendary skill: The ability to transform Pall Mall cigarette ashes into a gracefully hanging Grecian arch, much to the amazement of awed onlookers. It was his personal trademark. And without flinching while typing his latest story.

 

Tom’s wife, the late Marjorie Ryan, threatened to put this inscription on Tom’s tombstone: “The World Was His Ashtray.”

 

Tom died February 9, 1985 at age of 64 of cancer.

 

The late Terry Oblander’s lead on Tom’s obituary, following Tom’s instructions to the letter: “Tom Ryan was a newspaperman.”

 

There has never been a more accurate description.