Thomas Ryan, a soccer-loving, family-devoted food distributor whose businesses advertised in the Daily News died on Monday after a battle with bone cancer. He was 69.
Ryan, who lived in East Meadow, was one of the owners of Westside Foods in the Bronx’s Hunts Point Market, and the owner of Jake’s Steakhouse in Riverdale and East Meadow, businesses where he considered the staff his second family, according to his daughter, Jennifer Hartmann.
“Many of them have reached out and said, ‘Because of your dad I got a chance. He believed in me when no one else did.’ He saw things in people that most people didn’t. He always saw the good in someone. He saw the potential.”
Ryan made the most of his own potential, rising through the ranks of Westside Foods to become an owner of the largest wholesale food distributors in the tri-state area.
When he wasn’t working, Ryan could be found on the sidelines of a soccer field, where he coached boys and girls, including his own children, for more than 20 years.
He coached the East Meadow Dream Team and the East Meadow Eagles, and was vice president of the East Meadow Soccer Club
Ryan was the oldest of four children born to Irish immigrants who settled in the Bronx. It was there he met and married his wife, Peggy, with whom he raised three children, Matthew, Nicole, and Jennifer.
After four years in the Bronx, the family moved to East Meadow.
He is survived by his wife, children and grandchildren, with whom he loved to fish, fly kites and absorb the waves along the beach.
“We ask that you think of Tom every time you step on the field or dip your toes in the ocean,” a family statement said. “Know he will always be with you there.”
Afternoon and evening visitations will be Thursday at 2 p.m and 7 p.m. at Charles J. O’Shea Funeral Homes, Inc. in Wantagh.
A funeral mass will be held 11 a.m. Friday at Curé of Ars Church in Merrick.
