Kinna said she met Myers about a year and a half ago when he was a customer at the bank where she worked. He made her laugh, so she asked him to go to a tractor pull with her and they hit it off, she said.
"He was amazing," she said. "He was so understanding. You could tell him anything and he'd listen."
The three roommates had recently adopted a puppy, a pit bull terrier named Carlin.
"He was so excited," Barr said. "He counted down the days till he could pick it up from the breeder's."
Barr and Myers often spent their Thursday nights with friends at the Four Locks section of the Potomac River, where Myers rode a personal watercraft, Barr said.
That pastime proved perilous last July when Myers and his watercraft fell about 20 feet over Dam 5. Myers said afterwards that he had gotten too close to the dam and when the watercraft started falling, he jumped off. After landing, Myers got back on the watercraft and rode it to shore, he said then. The incident resulted in probation and a $300 fine for operating a vessel in a prohibited area.
"I wouldn't call him reckless, but he wasn't afraid to try anything," Shives said. "If he could push the limit, he was gonna try it."
However, when it came to the motorcycle, "he was never really crazy," Shives said.
For the past three years, Myers helped coach the junior high boys soccer team at Grace Academy, from where he graduated in 2004.
"He just kind of had a presence with the boys," said Myers' friend and co-coach, Nathanael Hanft, 24, of Hagerstown. "They really looked up to him."
At a scrimmage about two weeks ago, when the team saw Myers for the first time in months, they all gave him hugs, Hanft said.
"Everyone who was friends with Ryan could tell that he really cared for those around him," he said.
Kinna said her favorite memory of Ryan was when he surprised her on Christmas with a teddy bear dressed just like him, in a flannel shirt, overalls and work boots.
"I loved him," she said. "He will truly be missed."
Arrangements for Ryan Myers
Del. Myers' family will receive friends Sunday, April 12, from 2 to 8 p.m. at Tri-State Fellowship Church, 13153 Cearfoss Pike, Hagerstown.
The funeral will be Tuesday, April 14, at 11 a.m. at Tri-State Fellowship Church. The family requested the omission of flowers and asked that memorial donations be made to Grace Academy, 13321 Cearfoss Pike, Hagerstown, MD 21740. Expressions of sympathy can be sent to Del. Myers and his family at 14627 National Pike, Clear Spring, MD 21722. They have requested no phone calls, cards and emails will be accepted.
