Duane Smith Auditorium Manager Ryan Andrew Daly. Photo by Andy McBride/ladailypost.com

By Andy McBride
Student Reporter
Los Alamos Daily Post

When we think of Star Wars we may think of the popular phrase, “May the force be with you” and legends like Yoda or Luke Skywalker. Ryan Andrew Daly is a huge Star Wars fan and a legend of his own … and he is the manager of Duane Smith Auditorium (DSA) at Los Alamos High School (LAHS).

Daly was born in Palos, Ill., and raised in Osceola, Ind. Growing up as the youngest of five children, LAHS Principal Renee Dunwoody was the oldest.

Daly went to high school in a rural area and owned and raised 30 chickens and worked on two blueberry farms while having one of his brothers and friends bail hay with him.

College life was a very fun time for him, starting at Ball State University in Indiana while working at Sam’s Club pushing carts and then moving to produce. Daly had a dream; his dream was to go to IV Tech South Bend to become an architect. That dream changed when he discovered Theatre in his senior year. Daly  was in a club doing backstage work for the theatre at the school he was attending. He said that he had way too much fun doing this work and decided to change his plans and major in Theatrical Design Technology.

In 2012, Daly joined the Air Force and was deployed to the Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. Daly was going in as a Mechanic but trained for Para Trooper Flight, which was hardcore and kind of dumb as Daly said. After he finished training, Daly was deployed to Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas, as an Aerospace Ground Equipment Specialist. He finished out from the Air Force as a Senior Airman E-4.

When Daly’s current job came along as the DSA manager, his sister pushed him to apply for the job and he did. He joined the LAHS team on Jan. 29, 2018.

“I would say that the best part of my job is just teaching kids how technical theatre works and watching them be excited to learn and grow as theatre kids,” Daly said.

Daly is a very active person and likes video games and Dungeons and Dragons, but he also likes shooting rifles, bowling, darts and pool.

“I was babied a lot as a kid and something I would teach other people is to think for yourself because life isn’t always going to be handed to you,” Daly said.