Lina Wolf
I first met Ryan in 2022, at SymfonyCon Disneyland Paris. From the very first moment, his warmth and enthusiasm was contagious. Ryan had a remarkable vision: that documentation teams of different PHP frameworks should join forces, learn from each other, and build better tools together.
He introduced me to the efforts of the Doctrine team and PHP Documentor to create a PHP-based reStructuredText renderer. Out of these early conversations grew a collaboration that has since greatly improved TYPO3’s documentation infrastructure. By moving towards a PHP-based stack — closer to the language we all speak in this community — we were able to take a big step forward.
Ryan wasn’t directly involved in our day-to-day work, but he was the spark: he had the ideas, pointed us in the right direction, and always encouraged us with kind words. For me personally, and for the TYPO3 Documentation Team, his influence will remain.
Ryan will be deeply missed. I send my heartfelt condolences to his wife, his son, and his family. In the United States, healthcare and education can be expensive. I have made a donation to the GoFundMe campaign for his son. If you are able, I warmly encourage you to support his family as well.
Ryan’s legacy will live on — not only in Symfony and SymfonyCasts, but also in the countless projects and people he inspired across the PHP world. Thank you, Ryan, for everything.
Photo of Ryan courtesy of Kévin Dunglas / API Platform Conference.
Mathias Bolt Lesniak