End of Watch: 10/7/1938
Age: 37
Years of Service: 9
Cause of Death: Motorcycle Accident
National Memorial Panel: 15-W: 3

Quartermaster Sergeant Dryden was seriously injured in a collision with a bakery truck in Mount Rainier, Maryland (intersection of Rhode Island Avenue and 34th Street) while escorting Governor Ritchie home from the first Roosevelt inauguration. After a five year battle against infections caused by the injuries, Dryden died of septicemia (streptococcus in the bloodstream).​