![Charles Egan](/media/images/charles_egan_169.original.png)
Charlie Egan's Celebration of Life
Date & Time
Oct. 12, 2024 @ 2 p.m.
Location
Vanderslice Hall & Epperson Auditorium
Kansas City Art Institute
4415 Warwick Blvd
Kansas City, Missouri
Parking available in KCAI visitor parking at Warwick Blvd. entrance, Kemper parking lot at 44th and Warwick Blvd. or street parking
For event details contact KCAI Assistant Vice President of Institutional Advancement Chadwick Brooks at events@kcai.edu or 816-802-3483.
The following tribute was sent by the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation on behalf of the Stanley H. Durwood Foundation.
Charlie was born the eldest child of Charles J. Egan Sr. and Alice Ball Egan in Cambridge, Mass. on August 11, 1932. Charlie attended Brookline High School where he developed an interest in history and swimming. He was captain of the swimming team and class president. Charlie graduated in 1950 and enrolled at Harvard University that fall. During his sophomore year, he met the love of his life, Mary Carolyn Bowersox, a student at Radcliffe College. Upon graduation from Harvard in 1954, he was commissioned a 2nd Lt. in the Marine Corps. Charlie and Mary married in August 1955. After he was honorably discharged from the Marines, he enrolled in Columbia Law School in New York, graduating in 1959.
He practiced law in New York until 1972, when he was recruited by Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, Mo., eventually becoming Hallmark’s Senior Vice President General Counsel, Corporate Secretary and Hall Family Counsel. During his tenure, he built a significant in-house law firm of highly talented and gifted lawyers and staff who likewise served Hallmark with great distinction during a remarkable period of growth, diversification and prosperity at Hallmark.
His life was an exemplar of service to and for so many, both individuals and the institutions that served them, as well as the public interest and common good. While the examples of Charlie’s service are endless, many remember him for his service in the Marine Corps, his board of directors’ roles for Pembroke Country Day School and Notre Dame de Sion, his board member role at the Kansas City Art Institute, his honorary Doctorate from Groton School in Groton, Mass., and his founding trustee role for the Stanley H. Durwood Foundation. In the 1960s, Charlie worked with the ABC (A Better Chance) program, which is an organization dedicated to identifying and preparing minority students to attend the nation’s leading academic institutions. He also helped students who needed financial support attend school by raising tuition dollars.
His most notable contributions, however, were to Harvard College, where he graduated in 1954 with a Bachelor of Arts in history and where he captained the men’s swimming team, a feat duplicated by his son Peter in 1985. Charlie was actively involved in alumni affairs including serving as president of the Harvard Alumni Association and leading many significant and successful fundraising efforts all his life. In 2013, the Egan family endowed the Ulen-Brooks Chair for Harvard men’s swimming. In 2015, he was awarded the Harvard Medal in recognition of a life term of service to Harvard.
A devoted family man, Charlie and Mary had four sons who emulated his example with interests in law and teaching, swimming competitively and recreationally, Marine Corps service, history and current events, an appreciation for the arts, a love for the sea and the country, a lifetime of service and commitment to others and most importantly, education. A man of great faith, decency, courage, integrity, intelligence, and wisdom, he was blessed by God’s Grace throughout his life, did his best and was a glory unto his day.
Charlie is predeceased by his parents and two sisters, Margaret Egan and Ellen Egan Del Tergo, his cousin and best friend Frank Ball. He is survived by his wife of 69 years, Mary, his four sons Timothy (Doris), Sean (Anne), Peter and James (Glenda), along with seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.