Msgr. Gerald J. Ryan Blvd. (Bronx)
Present name:East 138th Street
Location:Between Jackson Avenue and Willis Avenue
Honoree:  Gerald J. Ryan (1920-2013) began working as a priest in the Bronx in 1945. In the 1960s, he joined the March on Washington, and stood with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Alabama. He later helped build low-income housing for Spanish-speaking immigrants in the South Bronx. In 1966, he began serving at St. Luke’s parish whose population was changing rapidly. He enrolled in a Berlitz class and started to minister in Spanish. Working with the city, he helped lead a church effort to build two housing projects, St. Francis and George Hardy. In the 1970’s when the South Bronx started to burn, he remained in the Bronx and opened the parish basement as a community center and he kept the parish school open. He ran St. Luke’s until he was 93, making him the City's oldest working priest. (Mark-Viverito)
LL:2014/34