Bucks’ Chief Adult Probation Officer retires
Sean R. Ryan has headed Bucks County’s Adult Probation and Parole Office since 2007, overseeing a staff of 82 officers, managers and support workers
By Tom Waring
The Times
Sean R. Ryan retired last Friday as Bucks County’s Chief Adult Probation Officer.
Ryan, 66, of Hilltown Township, has headed Bucks County’s Adult Probation and Parole Office since 2007, a role in which he oversees a staff of 82 officers, managers and support workers. The office is responsible for supervising about 10,700 offenders placed on probation or parole by the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas.
Earlier in his career, Ryan had worked for 19 years as a Bucks County adult probation officer, supervisor and deputy chief. He left for 11 years when Gov. Tom Ridge appointed him to the State Board of Probation and Parole, where he served two terms from 1995–2006.
“Sean’s a special guy. He’s had a long, long career in public service, in a difficult arena,” County Commissioners’ Chairman Robert G. Loughery said at a recent commissioners meeting, where Ryan was honored with a proclamation and a commemorative Mercer tile.
“I just want to thank my staff and the Court of Common Pleas and the commissioners for all their support,” Ryan said. “I wish you the best of luck in the future.”
Ryan earned a degree in social psychology at Juniata College, where he was co-captain of the football team and earned second-team All-State honors as an offensive guard. He went on to graduate school at Lehigh University, earning a master’s degree in social restoration while also teaching death row inmates at SCI Graterford and co-facilitating a sex-offenders’ therapy group.
He initially was hired by Bucks County in 1976, rising to Deputy Chief Adult Probation Officer by 1987. Among his achievements was creating, in concert with the Network of Victim Assistance, a sexual offender intervention program.
Ryan was selected by Ridge without having requested or received any assistance from state or local politicians.
“He put his name in through the proper channels and was recognized on his merits,” then-state Sen. David W. Heckler told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1995, lauding Ryan for his “apolitical, no-nonsense, call-it-as-you-see-it approach.”
Ryan returned to Bucks County in 2007 to oversee the department he had left in 1995.
Ryan also has served as a consultant to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, has taught or co-taught criminal justice classes at Temple University and Bucks County Community College for the past 30 years, has served on a number of state, regional and national corrections-related boards, and served as chairman of the Bucks County Prison Oversight Board.
A successor has not yet been named. ••
