Ryan Michael Gregory

Ryan Michael Gregory

Jan. 26, 1981 – July 20, 2024 Kansas City, Kansas – Ryan Gregory, 43, left this world into God’s arms, after a prolonged and valiant fight against cancer. Always a good soul, he relished a full, exciting and productive life, having lived in numerous cities coast to coast, exercising his entrepreneurial spirit in many ways. 

He is survived by his sweet and thoughtful wife Melinda Dillon (Kansas City), an especially loving soulmate to Ryan’s wide-ranging escapades and enterprises and a loving supporter in his battle with cancer. He is also survived by his ex-wife and friend Molly (Wagner) Malinsky (Mead, Colorado). Family survivors include his mother Linda Gregory, sister Shana Gregory, brother Grant Gregory (all of Wichita), and his father Jim and stepmom Melissa Gregory (Leawood, Kansas). He leaves behind good friends in Kansas City, many cousins, and lifelong friends from his grade school and Marshall Middle School days in Wichita. 

Ryan graduated from Wichita North High School, Johnson County Community College, and Kansas State University. Ryan was full of personality and made special friends wherever life took him. His entrepreneurial endeavors were varied from running bar room poker tables in Lawrence, Kansas, and numerous poker tables at chain restaurants along the coast from San Diego to Los Angeles when he was just out of North High, to opening franchised tea houses in Boston and New York, including Times Square. He ramrodded cable ground and pole crews in several states at once and he was always engaged in something. He managed an indie band with his friends and also worked and lived in Alabama, Tennessee, and South Carolina. He had jobs at Hallmark in Lawrence, and a search firm in Kansas City’s Corporate Woods, and was the sous chef at the two-man Charlies Famous Burgers in Wichita. When asked, he built decks for family members, flipped a house or two and was always busy. For the last year of his battle with cancer, between radiation and chemo treatments, he remodeled the home he shared in Kansas City with his loving wife Melinda. 

Special thanks to Saint Luke’s Hospice House in Kansas City, Missouri. There will be a Celebration of Life at 1 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 24 at Pleasant Valley United Methodist Church, 1600 W. 27th St. North, Wichita, Kansas.