Danny ‘Budzo’ Ryan, who died at 81 on Saturday after a brief illness, will be mourned by a diverse mix of Bostonians. The retired court officer achieved legendary status in a unique trifecta: the court system, politics, and the recovery community, where the Savin Hill native was a shepherd for thousands of men and women since the mid-1970s.
I first encountered Danny courtside in the gymnasium at the Boys and Girls Club on Deer Street, where he coached a basketball team in the Safe Summer Streets League as though they were in Game 7 of the NBA finals. He was intense. The same passion he brought to coaching, I later found, was a constant denominator in his life.
In political circles, the Grampian Way native held serious sway in his home base, Ward 13, precinct 10, the old St. William’s schoolhouse. So synonymous did he become with the bellwether Savin Hill precinct that he was known to sign in at civic meetings and wakes as, simply, “Budzo 13-10.”
As The Globe’s Kevin Cullen noted in a tribute column this week, Budzo’s most treasured election day win likely came in 2013, when he helped my wife, Linda Dorcena Forry, notch a narrow win for state Senate by carrying the 13-10 precinct by just nine votes. For Danny Ryan, that was tantamount to winning the White House.
“For me, selfishly speaking, it was the most satisfying victory of my political career,” he told a reporter the next day. A few days later, he was front and center at the mayoral campaign kickoff for his longtime friend, Marty Walsh, at the Strand Theatre. He helped Marty win a few battles over the years as well.
“I’m a competitor. And I enjoy the fight,” he’d say.
Budzo’s fights were highly personal, but not about him. They were fueled by his eagerness to help the people he encountered daily on his travels: the drug-addled kid waiting to be arraigned in Southie or Roxbury; fellow passengers on the 23 bus (the “Michael Jordan” he called it); new arrivals passing by on the bench he favored by Town Field. All city people, like him, in need of help. A lot of them, like his youthful self until he seized sobriety in 1975, struggling with demons that he knew how to battle and defeat. He showed others how to do it, too.
For Budzo, the fighting required all of his faculties, wit, good humor, and sometimes, a flash of temper. When a political ally failed to deliver on a campaign promise, he wasn’t shy about letting them know the full extent of his disappointment. But pals like Craig Galvin recall that he’d be just as quick with a mea culpa when he was in the wrong.
“Danny knew that people were inherently good,” said Galvin. “That they might be one job, one break, one medicine dose away from being okay. What made him tick was him knowing that people could be helped and that he could do it. There’ve been plenty of people who know how to help people get jobs, get through the court system, get recovery. But nobody could do it all like he could. He was like a three-headed horseman.”
Budzo’s wake will be held on Wed., May 14 at IBEW Hall on Freeport Street. A Mass will be celebrated by his dear friend Rev. John Unni from Saint Cecilia’s, where Danny was a regular congregant. Full details are here via Murphy’s Funeral Home.
There’ll be much more to say about Danny and his amazing life— and his devotion to faith and his family, especially his wife Dottie and their children — in the coming days.
For now, let’s just keep it simple, as he’d prefer: Thanks for everything, Budzo. You made a difference and saved a lot of lives.
-Bill Forry
