Vale | Peter Ryan OAM – It is with great sadness and personal sorrow that we acknowledge the passing of friend and colleague, Peter Ryan OAM.
In a world full of tragedy and death we can become hardened to loss but when someone so good, so dear leaves us the pain can be so great. But we are held up by the community of care, the friends and family that knew Peter and loved him.
He was literally a gentle giant who maintained his professionalism and values despite it sometimes being a business that Hunter S. Thompson once described as ,
“ It’s a damned shame that a field as potentially dynamic and vital as journalism should be overrun with dullards, bums, and hacks, hag-ridden with myopia, apathy, and complacence, and generally stuck in a bog of stagnant mediocrity.”
Peter stood above that sticking to a calm exposition of the facts maintaining trust and respect in the business world he observed.
So much so that Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said of him:
“Peter Ryan is an absolute legend. Every day as you wake up and you think about what’s happening in the economy, if you only needed to listen to one voice to be sure that you got its essential elements, it would be Peter’s.”
Peter had a terrific career starting as a copy boy and ending up being awarded an OAM for his services to journalism in 2022.
Peter won awards several prestigious awards for his exposé of the Commonwealth Bank scandal and in 2018, he was the National Press Club finance journalist of the year for his coverage of the Banking Royal Commission. In a career spanning a jaw dropping 45 years he served as Head of TV News and Current Affairs in Victoria, ABC Washington Bureau Chief and was also the founding editor of ‘Lateline Business’.
A colleague who worked with him very early on at Sydney’s Daily Mirror newspaper, Steve Barrett, said this of him,
“ He understood what was news and how to break it and he followed that tradition all his working life.”
ABC journalist and presenter, Michael Rowland;
“Peter “represented the very best of the ABC. He was scrupulously fair and was committed to accuracy and facts. There was never any agenda in his reporting. That is why he was held in such high regard by his colleagues and the ABC audience. I learnt so much from him.”
To underline his integrity when not in the public eye he was a supportive colleague, encouraging and supporting those around him, always ready to support the newbies and those struggling with the task.
His final advice to them said it all, “Avoid cynicism, be passionate… Be proactive… Maintain a fastidious contact book… and most of all: Be kind and caring to people who need it.”
To friends and family he was loyal and solid, entertaining and whimsical over a glass.
For us at the Kennedy Foundation its an especially sad moment as Peter was not only the founding Chairman of the Foundation but was so helpful supportive of its growth and success right up to his last days.
“Peter had magnificent heart and his efforts to build a relationship between the ABC and the Kennedy Foundation as our first chairman will prove to be a tremendous legacy,”
– Kennedy Awards co-founder Adam Walters said.
Our thoughts are with his wonderful partner Mary and daughter, Charlotte who were his rock.
What a journalist, what a friend, what a man.
Media Release – Kennedy Foundation
Link to Kennedy Foundation HERE
TV Central News content HERE
Vale | Peter Ryan OAM
