Keary was born to Richard (Dick) and Gwenn Ryan in Wausau, Wisconsin on April 21st, 1959. He was their 2nd son after Patrick, born in 1957. They spent their early lives with family and friends in Wausau, Wauwatosa, and Appleton. A younger brother Chris and a sister Lynda eventually filled out the family.

Early life was school, camping around Wisconsin, swimming, and playing sandlot football imitating our favorite Green Bay Packers of the 1960s. Keary and Pat played a lot of football and a famous story was that Keary actually broke his leg playing football when he was in 2nd grade, but kept playing for a while before heading to the hospital - where he was fitted with a full leg cast.

The Ryan family cherished swimming, and trips were often planned to visit rivers, lakes and local pools. Frequent trips to Wausau to visit their grandparents meant a trip to the local swimming pool down by the river. "We would swim in that cold pool for as long as we could, and then we would both lay down on the concrete deck - which had been heated by the sun to "warm up" as the air was often in the 50s or 60s. It was the only way to warm up. Swimming with Keary became a lifelong constant, and we shared so many water-related adventures over the years", explained Pat, his brother.

We were also both involved in the Cub Scouts, and Boy Scouts - which meant we learned how to hike and camp in the Wisconsin woods. Back then, some of the scout masters were of indian descent, and they taught us about what plants we could eat, which ones to stay away from, how to fish, and how to find and catch newts, snakes and other creatures.

We also learned to swim at the YMCA. Saturday mornings we were dropped off for several hours to go through a cycle of archery, basketball, craft-making, and then finally swimming. Starting out as "Guppies", we worked our way up the ladder of swim ranks so when we went to the summer camp - we could venture outside of the rookie area. When our parents would pick us up every Saturday, our eyes would be blood-shot from looking under water in the highly chlorinated pools of the Appleton YMCA downtown. Every summer, we would pack up our special metal camp trunks, and we would be driven up north to the YMCA camp for a week or two of non-stop activities including crafts, shooting 22 cal. rifles, archery, firebuilding, swiming, canoeing, sailing, diving, and team games like fighting over watermelons covered with vaseline in the lake, and trying to sneak through the woods playing "Post Office" to deliver stamps to our HQs before the camp counselors would catch up. We learned how to really navigate the woods - even at nights, although the racoon fights and bears never made it comfortable.

Our later childhood years were living in Janesville, along a large valley filled with long grass, game trails, animal bones and unlimited adventures as kids. During the fall, we would use the long cattail reeds to build forts in the dry creekbeds, or have fake grenade fights using the nearby corn fields as battlefields (we would shuck a cob, and peel off half the corn so it looked like a Nazi grenade and then store them up for when the other side attacked. We would then launch a barrage of corn cobs towards any noise coming towards us in the 6 - 8 foot tall fields of corn stalks). I am sure the farmers had us up on a wanted poster somewhere.

In 1972, our father was transferred to a big city - Houston, Texas and the family pulled up our Wisconsin roots and headed south.

Part of the deal was we were going to have a pool in the backyard - which we soon realized is needed due to the hot, humid summers that we never got used to. But Texas had an ocean, and we loved water - so trips to the beach were one of the highlights of our summers. But probably the biggest draw for us was a forest/wilderness that we found over a nearby dam - called Turkey Creek. About a mile or two from our sub-division was a wilderness populated with all kinds of critters that we had never seen including a wide variety of poisionous and non-poisonous snakes. Here we really honed our Wisconsin skills for catching snakes, including the bad tempered cottonmouth, rattlesnakes, and the copperheads. Keary even got bit by a copperhead once - only to be told by the doctor that about 50% of the copperhead bites are "dry" - and he was one of the lucky ones. But the 2 fang marks left life-long scars between his two fingers and a great story when one was needed.

As I was in high school and turning my attention to other distractions, Keary and our 10 year old poodle, Simon, kept up the wilderness adventures without me and Keary and neighbor kids built up some great snake collections. They even got to a point where they were selling "blue racers" and gentle "hog noses" to a local pet store for a profit.

To some extent, Keary and I were odd ducks - small town Yankees from Wisconsin in a big city that was divided into clear-cut clans in the 1970s: Cowboys, Jocks, Nerds, and Hippies. As the hippies were the nicest and most welcoming, we started hanging out with them as we progressed through high-school - but not without creating headaches and clashes with our parents. Keary and I often kidded our younger brother Chris and sister Lynda that we had broken all the rules so they would look like angels compared to their older brothers. 

I joined the Navy in 1977 - just when Keary was graduating and our paths didn't cross much for the next 6 years. But by 1983, I returned to Texas and Keary and I got to see each other on a regular basis - as I was going to college in San Marcos, Texas and he was living in Austin - with his first wife Kathy. When we got together, we didn't have much money, so we often just ate, drank some cheap whiskey and coke and played cribbage. Unless of course, we scheduled time to float down the clear but cold Guadalupe River on an inner tube. We would often stop at railroad bridges over the river and Keary would taunt me into jumping (I'm not crazy about heights, but he was fearless) from the trestles that were often 15 - 25' up. It was scary to jump into water you could not see the bottom of because the seaweed was 5 feet tall at the bottom. And when you went down into to all those weeds, it was a little dark until you could claw your way to the surface and scream to the next in line to "Jump!!!".

Our parents had moved out to California in the mid-1980s. Chris and Lynda still lived at home and Keary and I eventually decided to move to California too. I moved in 1985, and I can't remember if Keary was already there - or if he came soon thereafter. 

By this time, he had divorced and remarried his 2nd wife - also named Cathie. She had 2 sons from a previous relationship - Eric and Chris. They lived in Temple City I think, which is near Pasadena and Monrovia (where we moved). By now, Keary had a lot of experience not only hiking, but also doing some climbing as the Sierra Madres were directly east and above us every day - towering up to 5,000 - 7,500 feet. 

Keary would often take Eric and Chris hiking up the various canyons that often featured waterfalls, and I became aware of just how daring Keary could be. He had no qualms taking a trail high on a cliff with only 6 - 12" of foot space and I remember having to stop a few hikes as it was just getting too "hairy" for me. He would really try to push me to keep going, but I had already been rescued once and I didn't want it to happen again.

As we explored California, we both came across Yosemite - and were immediately in love with the most spectacular place on earth. But hiking with Keary was always a little scary because he had no fear of heights, and in a place like Yosemite - that can mean really, really high places. One time we went up to Glacier Point to shoot evening photos. Against our objections, Keary crawled over the railings and walked out one of the famous flat boulders that overhang the Yosemite valley called Overhang Rock - probably 2,000 - 3,000 feet straight down. He would casually walk to the edge, look down for a while, and then sit with his legs dangling for 5 - 10 minutes. Eventually the commotion and attention of the tourists became too much and he would come back within the railings - but I couldn't even watch when he was near a cliff. 

As a commercial electrician, Keary made good money - especially when he was part of a union. But one unfortunate thing happened one day - when he fell down an elevator shaft from the 3rd floor that was under construction and somehow lived. From that day on though - he had back problems and aches and pains. And after that, his rock climbing days as a limber outdoorsman slowed down a lot.

Keary loved the freedom and the outdoors of Northern Wisconsin. It's where he grew up as a child, and it's where he wanted to be. So he moved from California back to Wausau, Wisconsin in the early 2000s and spend the next 20+ years hiking through the city he loved, and through the surrounding forests, streams and parks.

When he first arrived in Wisconsin, he reconnected with our grandfather Orville Krueger - who had some heart troubles. So they began regular daily walks through the town, often joking about everything and anything as my grandfather shared Keary's sense of humor and was glad to have someone to walk with. Some people attribute these walks and renewed interactions with the longevity my grandfather achieved before and after his heart surgery. I do know from my visits and walks with my grandfather that he appreciated having Keary there for assistance, for company during those walks and for the entertainment value of having Keary around. My grandfather, Keary and I loved to go down to the weekly Wausau farmer's market to get fresh vegetables, and to load up on fresh Maple Syrup (which I would transport back to California). The Krueger family (my mom's maiden name) had been buying maple syrup from the same family/farm for generations - and I was 4th or 5th I believe. During this time, Keary was also introduced to Dee - a long-time friend of Orville, who had worked with him at the Wausau Bank many, many years ago. She helped my grandfather manage his checkbook, bills and budget after my grandmother went into an Alzheimer's Care Center. When Orville died in 2009, Dee asked if Keary would consider living with her and taking care of her as she was getting quite old and had no local family to help out. 

Keary then lived with Dee a few miles away from Orville's home, and one of his responsibilities was to take care of her 2 dogs. Well - those 2 dogs became Keary's daily walk buddies, best friends, and they walked all over Wausau together. Much to the chagrin of law-abiding citizens and occasionally law enforcement, Keary hated and refused to put those dogs on a leach. Of course, he was eventually forced to carry around a leash in case the local authorities were nearby - because by then, he was at risk of being labeled a multiple offender for leash law violations. So eventually, he would drive the dogs out to parks and forests outside of town for long walks off-leash. One of his favorite places was the Eau Claire Dells - out near Aniwa. Dee died about 10 years ago, and her ungrateful family basically threw him out of the house they had waited years to cash in on - without out any thanks. But Keary did secure the most important thing to him - the dogs. Keary felt that helping Dee was pay back for Dee helping our grandfather for more than 20 years.

So he, his artwork and his dogs moved out to Aniwa Wisconsin, nearby his beloved Dells and the Eau Claire river. Here he established a happy routine of walking with his dogs, working on his art, and occasionally visiting nearby friends and volunteering with "Meals on Wheels" and other charities. He basically retired from doing occasional electrical work - which is what he had relied on throughout his life for income.

On my last 2 visits to see Keary in 2021 and 2022 - guess what we did? We saw a Wausau Woodchucks game, we walked throughout Wausau for hours with his dogs (off the leash), hiked out along the river at the Dells, and ate at Sam's Pizza. Of course, we also stopped and had an ice cream cone and a dilly bar at the 3rd Ave Tastee Freeze - just like we did when we were 6 years old.