Nancy Ann Ryles (December 18, 1937 – September 12, 1990) was an Oregon politician.[4] She served in the Oregon House of Representatives, the Oregon Senate and as one of three members of the state's Public Utility Commission. She was known as an advocate for education and for equality for women and minorities.[4] An elementary school in Beaverton is named after her.
Nancy Ryles served on the Beaverton school board from 1972 to 1978,[4] as well as on the State Advisory Council for Career and Vocational Education.[1] The Oregon Education Association gave her its Human Rights Award in 1974.[5] She was named Beaverton's "First Citizen" in 1979.[9]
Career in government
Ryles was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives in 1978,[7] succeeding Tom Marsh,[1] and serving what was then House District 5 (but which became District 7 after a legislative reapportionment plan approved by the Oregon Legislature in 1981). In 1982, she was elected to the Oregon State Senate, District 3—a newly created district formed from portions of other districts[9] (including about half of former Senate District 5).[10] She served two terms in each chamber of the Oregon Legislature, and in both chambers was appointed to serve on the Education Commission of the States.[4]
She was proud of the passage of a 1981 bill mandating public kindergartens in Oregon, which built on work begun by then-legislator Betty Roberts in 1965.[4] She co-chaired a Senate Task Force in 1985 and 1986 which attempted to pass aid in dying legislation; the legislative efforts were unsuccessful, but were an important precursor to the passage of the Oregon Death with Dignity Act in 1994.[4]
Ryles died September 12, 1990, of cancer.[4][7] She was still serving on the state's Public Utility Commission at the time, her term due to end on March 31, 1991.[7] She was buried at Bethany Presbyterian Cemetery. She was survived by Vernon Barton Ryles (September 25, 1937 – August 7, 2013)[13] and two children, Scott Allen Ryles and Ashley Marie Ryles.[14]
Friends of Ryles established a women's scholarship program at Portland State University in her honor, the Nancy Ryles Scholarship Fund.[7] The program had been Ryles' own idea.[7] She had regretted having never graduated from college, and she wanted to help other women avoid having such regrets.[8] The first scholarship winner was announced in May 1991, and by September 2010, 23 women had been its beneficiaries. The scholarship fund was valued at $708,000 in 2010.[12]
The Joan Johnson Papers at Portland State University—Johnson was an aide to Nancy Ryles’ during her time in the Oregon State Senate and the collection contains Ryles materials relating to supporting aid-in-dying legislation and some of her speeches.
