Drennan, William Ryland Ph.D.

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Drennan, Wm Ryland fag_Victory

20191021HAv-
William Ryland “Bill” Drennan
Photo added by Victory

William Ryland “Bill” Drennan
BIRTH 24 Jan 1944
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, USA
DEATH 2 May 2015 (aged 71)
North Carolina, USA
BURIAL Unknown
MEMORIAL ID 146073686 ·
PHOTOS 1
FLOWERS 0

Son of Philip G. DRENNAN and Mary G. Drennan.
Married 1. Suzanne Ellen Drennan,
2. Beth RONEY.

William Ryland "Bill" Drennan, age 71, died May 2, 2015, following his battle with cancer. He was born January 24, 1944, in suburban Philadelphia and spent his childhood in Vermont, summering on Long Beach Island, NJ. At age ten, Bill and his family moved to Sarasota, FL, where he completed his primary and secondary education; at Sarasota High School, he played baseball, was president of the student council, won a statewide debate competition, and was ringmaster of the famous Sailor Circus. Bill received his BA in English (1966) from the University of Florida and his MA (1976) and Ph.D. (1983), with a concentration on the English Renaissance, from the University of South Florida, Tampa. He was also selected as a National Endowment for the Humanities summer seminarian at Yale University.

Aside from two years of high school teaching and ten years as a youth counselor with the State of Florida, Bill spent the bulk of his career in the University of Wisconsin Colleges, primarily at the University of Wisconsin-Baraboo/Sauk County, retiring as an emeritus full professor of English in 2007 and relocating to Blowing Rock, in the North Carolina mountains. In semi-retirement, he concluded his teaching career as an English instructor at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. Bill published over twenty articles in scholarly books and journals and authored Death in a Prairie House: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Murders, which has sold more copies than any other book published by the University of Wisconsin Press in the twenty-first century. At both UW-Baraboo and at Appalachian State, Bill received numerous awards for his research and classroom teaching.

He was predeceased by
- his parents, Philip G. Drennan and Mary G. Drennan Blodgett;
- his step-father, Kimball Blodgett;
- his sister Jane Drennan Thayer;
- his maternal grandparents Raymond and Nellie Ammerman;
- his paternal grandparents, Carl and Myrtle Drennan; and
by his aunts
- Flora Drennan,
- Blanche Utley,
- Frances Darling, and
- Bessie Drennan, all of Woodbury, VT.

He is survived by his wife Beth Roney Drennan of Blowing Rock, NC;
- his daughter Emma Jane Drennan, Richmond, VA;
his step-children
- Sarah Teresa Hancock Roney and
- John Paul Roney, Nashville, TN;
- his former wife Suzanne Ellen (David) Drennan, Madison, WI; and
his nephews
- Kevin (Dawn) Thayer, Micanopy, FL;
- Philip Thayer, Trenton, NJ;
- Timothy (Lisa) Thayer, Kelso, WA; and
- Glenn Thayer, Las Vegas, NV.

Memorial Services to be held later.

Family Members
Parents Mary Gertrude Ammerman Blodgett 1906-1977