Calvin Ryan-Mosley

Dr. Cal Ryan-Mosley

December 5, 1944 - March 26, 2025

Cal said that he wanted to be remembered as being kind and living a life of integrity. For a man whose life was full of accomplishment, he was perhaps best known as an eager listener, keen to hear the stories of others. He loved his family and was a steady friend, a supportive colleague, and an advocate for a better world through his work in higher education.

Cal was born in Bend, Oregon in 1944 and grew up in the small lumber and cattle-ranching town of Burns, Oregon to Donna (Mosley) Walker and Harvey Mosley. Cal and his sister Sonya were raised by their mother, who worked tirelessly to provide a wonderful childhood and an appreciation for hard work, the outdoors, and good education. Cal grew up humbly and didn’t learn to read until the 5th grade. He spent summers hunting and fishing with his extended family in Hines, and spent any free time playing sports—one of the great loves of his life.

Cal was a lifelong athlete. He was the first in his family to go to college and went to Pacific University with a scholarship where he played baseball, basketball, and football. He was an All-American, Honorable Mention and selected as the school’s Athlete of the Year in 1966. Cal was inducted in Pacific's Hall of Fame in 1994, and briefly played baseball in the minor leagues for the Chicago Cubs.

At Pacific, he studied Journalism and History and worked in admissions, which sparked his profound commitment to the importance of liberal arts and beloved career in higher education. Cal spent a decade working in admissions at Harvard College, later serving as Associate Dean at the Kennedy School of Government. He earned a doctorate from Harvard, where he wrote his thesis on the merger of Harvard and Radcliffe and the importance of women’s education. There, he met Claudia, who would become his wife of 35 years. In 1989, they moved to Minnesota, where Cal worked in admissions at Hamline University, the College of St. Catherine, and ultimately as Vice President of Admission and Financial Aid at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University. Cal loved the CSB/SJU community, the bucolic campus, the Benedictine sisters and monks, and the many esteemed colleagues who made the last 10 years of his career a true joy and proud professional capstone. Cal was widely respected across the higher education profession and worked tirelessly to promote college access and affordability. He was, most importantly, an advocate for students, especially for those from humble backgrounds like his own.

Cal’s greatest love, however, was his family. Cal considered the decision to marry Claudia and raise their three daughters—his “ball player girls”—the best of his life. He showed his love through small, dedicated acts of daily kindness like making morning coffee, building fires in the living room, filling up the car with gas, and listening carefully and seriously to everything his girls had to say. In a family that moved a thousand miles an hour, moments with Cal slowed down time. Cal also reluctantly embraced the large Irish Catholic family he married into, which ultimately became his own.

The self-described “poor kid” from Burns who became a Harvard graduate understood that people are more than the money they have, the clothes they wear, or the circles they are in. Cal was, in the end, a deeply kind person who lived with integrity, and taught many others how to do the same. He will be terribly missed, but his impact will live on.

Cal passed away after a four-year battle with throat cancer on March 26, 2025 in Hibbing, Minnesota. This challenging period also brought some of the purest moments of happiness, contentment, and togetherness for Cal and his family. Cal’s disease offered another opportunity to practice grit and perseverance, and he made the most of his final years by becoming an even better husband, father, and friend.

Cal is survived by his wife Claudia Ryan-Mosley; daughters Tate (Adam Brown), Erin, and Ali (Tucker Lorentzen) Ryan-Mosley; sister Sonya Reedy; cousin Don Nuxall (Sam); and many in-laws, nieces, nephews, and cousins.

Arrangements are with Dougherty Funeral Home of Hibbing. Services will be held on Monday, April 7 at St. Therese of Deephaven. Visitation at 1:00 pm. Funeral Mass at 2:30 pm. The family requests that memorials be directed to the Ryan-Mosley Student Emergency Fund at the College of Saint Benedict. (Checks can be made out to the College of Saint Benedict with the fund name noted in the memo or online at givecsb.com with the designated fund name. Contact information: 320-363-5402.)