Founding Directors
Leo Garwin, Ph.D., JD, received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering in 1948 from the University of Pennsylvania and graduated from Oklahoma City University School of Law in 1964. He spent his professional life in the sciences, working on the Manhattan Project, developing synthetic rubber, and designing distillation processes. He was employed by Kerr-McGee (KM) in Oklahoma City in petroleum, helium, and uranium projects. In 1967, he left KM to establish his own chemical engineering consulting firm. He taught petroleum and chemical engineering at Oklahoma State University and then at the University of Oklahoma. He died in 2003 in Carbondale.
Ruth Garwin, MS, received her Masters of Science from Oklahoma State University in 1948. She taught throughout her professional life, first history and geography at the primary-school level, and then criminology, sociology, and anthropology at the University of Central Oklahoma. She died in 1994 in Carbondale.
Marsha Ryan and Mark Garwin
Directors
Marsha Ryan, MD, JD, FACS, is a 1972 graduate of the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine and a 1987 graduate of the Southern Illinois University (SIU) School of Law. She was a general surgeon in practice in Carbondale in association with the SIU School of Medicine and was a member of the SIU School of Medicine’s Medical Humanities faculty. She has taught Medical Malpractice Law and Bioethics at the SIU School of Law. She is recently retired from the active practice of general and breast surgery, co-medical director of the Southern Illinois Healthcare (SIH) Cancer Center, and as a member of the SIU Board of Trustees. She currently participates on a variety of community boards that promote philanthropy and the arts.
Her husband, John, is an attorney in Carbondale, Illinois. They have a son, Jack, and a daughter, Kit.
Mark Garwin, MD, JD, is a 1976 graduate of the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine and a 2000 graduate of the Southern Illinois University School of Law. He is a practicing anesthesiologist in Carbondale, following his residency at the Mayo Clinic and a faculty position at Harvard Medical School.
His wife, Sylvia, is recently retired from the practice of OB/GYN in Carbondale, Illinois. They have two sons, Matthew and Jacob.
Jack Ryan, Matthew Garwin, Kit Ryan and Jacob Garwin
Associate Directors
- Jacob Arthur Garwin
- Matthew Lee Garwin
- John Lincoln (“Jack”) Ryan
- Mary Kathryn (“Kit”) Ryan