Dr. Frank Ryan's Pals Recall Him as Angel & Ladies' Man

Friends, colleagues and clients of Heidi Montag's plastic surgeon hold vigil in Malibu

Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty; Pacific Coast News

Heidi Montag did not attend her doctor Frank Ryan’s candlelight vigil in Malibu Tuesday night, but the thoughts she Tweeted earlier about her plastic surgeon – who died in a car crash Monday – were echoed by several at the ceremony: Dr. Ryan was “an angel.”

“I think about how many people were touched by [going to his] Bony Pony Ranch,” said a woman involved in helping with the Dr. Ryan Foundation, which benefited the less fortunate. “Part of his legacy will be the people he never treated – the people who never came into Beverly Hills.”

“I’m devastated,” Lawonna Rashad, also connected to Ryan’s charity, told PEOPLE. “I’ve known him for nine years. An angel has been taken away from me. His circle was Beverly Hills and Malibu, but it was also South Central and Compton.”

‘Larger Than Life’

Even though Montag was possibly Ryan’s best-known client, the doctor, 50, boasted an extensive celebrity clientele – several of whom spoke during the ceremony.

“As we all know, [Frank] was larger than life,” said Janice Dickinson. “He was the Bentley of plastic surgeons. He fixed people, but from the inside out. He loved women, he loved people.”

Plastic surgery veteran Melissa Rivers, 42, also came to pay tribute to her late doctor and friend. “He didn’t care who you were or where you were in your career – he was kind,” she said. “He handed me a card many, many years ago at the Golden Globes, and he was there with Gary Busey. It was kind of odd, but kind of cute. Janice [Dickinson] was always trying to get me to date him.”

“He’d always have a new girl with him,” recalls pal and client Jason Davis. “Nobody was a better person than Dr. Ryan.”

Gary Busey, Lisa Rinna, Harry Hamlin, Saved by the Bell‘s Dennis Haysbert and many of Ryan’s friends, relatives, colleagues and neighbors were also among the 150 people who came to honor the surgeon and philanthropist.