William Delmar O'Ryan, Jr. William Delmar O'Ryan, Jr, (Bill) was born in New York on March 16, 1944 to William, Sr. and Alicia Prann O'Ryan. He spent his childhood in the United States, Turkey and The Netherlands. For three years, he studied history at The University of Virginia before joining the Army. The Army trained him in Russian at The Defense Language Institute in Monterrey California prior to sending him to Ethiopia. Bill taught himself Tigrinya and Ge'ez, the native languages of Ethiopia. While there, Bill met and married his first wife, Askalu. He backpacked through East Africa with his good friend, Marco for several months before returning to the United States with his family. Bill settled in Madison Wisconsin and earned his bachelors degree in linguistics at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He spent a couple of years in Minneapolis before moving to Phoenix Arizona. He endured, without complaining, a severe case of Rheumatoid Arthritis which was less painful in the dry heat of the Arizona desert. He and his second wife, Fereshteh Taremi, taught Esperanto in Tempe for the Esperanto Society at Arizona State University. Bill was multilingual speaking English, Tigrenya, Dutch, Spanish, Turkish, etc. He also learned a multitude of computer languages. He spent countless hours translating articles from English into Esperanto on Wikipedia. Bill was a brilliant debater, had a tremendous sense of humor, and was compassionate. He was exceptionally well read and had an extensive library. As his disease progressed, Bill kept fighting for independence and had multiple surgeries to keep him walking. Askalu moved to Phoenix to care for him in 2005 when his mobility became more limited. Bill is greatly missed by those he left behind. He has joined his brother David who passed away in 1989 and his son Francis who passed away in 1997. He is survived by his sons: Micky, Patrik and Denny and daughters: Zowdi and Jemila as well as his siblings: Rick and Josephine. He also leaves behind his grandchildren: Joshua, JJ, Izzy, Claudia, Leo, Emmanuel and Rafael. The void caused by his passing is enormous. Thanks to Bill's brother Rick, sister Josephine and Kagnew friend Mark Kowal