Jack McBride Ryder

Who is Jack McBride Ryder?

Dr. Jack McBride Ryder, second president of Saginaw Valley State College was born December 2, 1928, in Newport, Kentucky. He graduated in 1947 from Bellevue High School. He served 24 months in the United States Army, and upon discharge enrolled at Michigan State University. He graduated in 1952 with a bachelor of science degree. After graduation he served as a teacher and principal of the Anglo-American Schools, Athens Greece. In 1954 he returned to MSU for graduate work, earning his master of administration in 1962. He graduated with high honors with membership in Phi Kappa Phi, Kappa Delta, and Phi Delta Kappa. He won the Hinman Graduate Fellowship in 1961.

Dr. Ryder was superintendent of Brady Community Schools, Saginaw County, from 1955 to 1957, and a member of the Saginaw County School Administrators Association. From 1957 to 1962 he was an assistant instructor in the MSU College of Education. In 1962 he was named assistant to the dean of University Extension Administration with the rank of associate professor at Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana. In 1963 he was named director of the Purdue University's Indianapolis campus. From January 1964 to October 1965 he was interim director, on part-time loan from Purdue, of the Indiana Vocational Technical College, a new institution created by the State of Indiana to provide vocational technical education at the post high school level. In February 1969 he was promoted to vice chancellor and dean, with rank of full professor in higher education, of the Indiana University-Purdue University joint campus at Indianapolis. He became vice chancellor and dean for administrative affairs of the IU-PUI campus in 1970, the position he held when named Saginaw Valley State College President in October 1974. He assumed full-time duties at SVSC on November 1, 1974.²