Carol Ann Ryser, born Carol Ann Carter in 1937 at Research hospital in Kansas City, Missouri.
She grew up in Holden, Missouri, Northern Arkansas, and spent most of her growing years in Thayer, Missouri where she graduated from High School in 1955. She lived with her parents, Leland Carter and Mary Fran Carter, and her younger brother, Larry, above their family owned funeral home in Thayer.
After graduating from High School, Carol Ann went to William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri where she graduated in 1959 with a B.A. in Chemistry. She was a pre-med student and was accepted in several Medical Schools but decided to go to the University of Kansas Medical School in Kansas City, Kansas. Upon graduating from Medical School in 1963 she entered a Pediatric Residency at KU Med. During her tenure in the Residency program, she also managed to spend two years with the US Army on the island of Crete in Greece as a special consultant.
Following her time in Crete, she accepted the post as Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and was the Director of the Children’s Rehab Unit at KU and completed her Pediatric Residency in 1967. While she was busy with her duties at KU Med, she also was on the consulting staff of Research Hospital in Kansas City and begin a private practice in Gardner Hospital in Gardner, Kansas.
Her interest begin to change in Medicine as she became more and more involved helping families cope with abusive situations. She was one of the first physicians who travelled in the state of Kansas talking about the abuse of children, helping with the Courts understand child abuse, and training medical professionals on how to address the situation. This led her to becoming more involved in the Psychological aspect of medicine as she soon became a Transactional Analyst with the International Transactional Analysis Association as a Certified Clinical Analyst in 1976.
At this point in her life she focused all her medical training and expertise on families and established MATRIX, a non-for-profit organization that provided psychotherapy for abused patients and training for physicians. During this time she became a consulting physician at Two Rivers Psychiatric Hospital.
Her final Medical career led her to working with chronically ill patients, many of whom had Lyme disease. From the mid-90’s until her retirement in 2013, her focus was with patients with debilitating diseases and formed Health Centers of America during this time.
Patients loved Carol Ann. She always took time with each patient, as demonstrated by her initial interview of her patients which lasted 2-3 hours or more. Her patient base was not just the Metro-KC area but had patients from all over the United States. She spent much time at conferences presenting her theories of illness and her methodology of treatment.
Carol Ann had been previously married before marrying Michael Ryser in April of 1980. She had two children by her pervious marriage, Stephanie Reece and Andrea Reece. With her marriage to Michael, she became the stepmother to Chris Ryser and Erika. Even with her busy schedule during all these years, she considered her primary focus as a mother and wife. Michael and Carol Ann worked together from 1974 through her retirement in 2013.
Carol Ann became critically ill with pneumococcal pneumonia in 2012 which was complicated by her Crohn’s disease. As her health was failing over the past few years and as the pain increased, she was no longer able to move around. After going to the hospital on the 2nd of April with failing health, she passed away on April 14, Present during her passing were her husband, children, and grandchildren at her bedside.
She leaves behind: Michael Ryser her husband; her children: Stephanie and daughter Lucia; Andrea, partner Becky and son Carter; Chris, wife Lisa and son Collin, Erika, husband Greg and son Nicolas.
