Sunday Afternoon Classics, noon - 3:00 pM

Monday Afternoon Classics, noon - 3:00 pM

Voice & Orchestra, Mondays 9:00 - 11:00 pM (alternating with Peter Shimkin)

From 1979 until he retired in 2003, John Ryden was Director of Yale University Press. He began his publishing career in the College Division of McGraw Hill in 1965, moving to Harper & Row in 1968 as History Editor, and then in 1975 to the University of Chicago Press where he was Editor-in- Chief and Associate Director before coming to Yale. He is a past president of the Association of American University Presses and was a member of the board of the Association of American Publishers. He is a past president and director of Beacon Press in Boston and sat on the Advisory Board the Central European University in Budapest.

John grew up in Forest Hills, NY, attended local schools and went to Harvard College, graduating in 1961. From 1962 to 1965 he was in the U. S. Navy as an officer on the U.S. Francis Marion, and then as an intelligence officer in Washington, DC. In 1962 he and Barbara Kelly, a native Forest Hillsian and graduate of Mount Holyoke College were married. They have two daughters, Linda, a teacher and musician, who lives in Washington, DC, and Patricia, a librarian, in Exeter, NH. They have three grandchildren. After many years of residence in New Haven, the Rydens have lived in Guilford, Connecticut for the past fifteen years.

John has had a life-long interest in music, particularly vocal music of all kinds, chamber music and jazz. A singing career begun at Harvard in the Glee Club and the Hasty Pudding Club’s Krokidiloes, interrupted by a career in publishing, was resumed on a part-time basis after he retired. A baritone, he sings lieder and show tunes, and has performed with the Mirror Visions Ensemble. While in New Haven, John has been active in many musical organizations including the Educational Center for the Arts and the Friends of Music at Yale. He is a past president and was for many years a trustee of Orchestra New England.