Chase Alumni Association

In Memoriam: Robert (Bob) Egan, 88

Former Mng. Director and Associate General Counsel at Chase

Robert (Bob) James Egan, 88, of New York, NY, a member of Chemical Bank's and Chase's legal department for more than 35 years, died on August 24, 2024, after a short illness. 

Born in Brooklyn, NY, Egan grew up with his father and grandmother on Long Island after his mother died in childbirth. After graduating from LaSalle Military Academy for high school, he attended Georgetown University. He received an MA in Political Science from Yale University in 1958 and a LLB. from Yale Law School in 1961. While at Yale Law School, he participated in the Freedom Rides to register black voters in Mississippi in the spring of 1961.

Egan devoted more than 60 years to the legal field and was a lifelong advocate for the Democratic Party, championing a wide range of social justice policies. He was a member of the Village Independent Democrats (VID) and ran former NYC Mayor Ed Koch's first campaign for Democratic district leader in 1963. Egan was President of the VID when New York City Democrats organized a more liberal part of the City's Democratic party called the New Democratic Coalition.

Egan was General Counsel of the New York Urban Coalition, a non-profit organization formed in the late 1960s by local government, business and labor leaders to tackle the problems of inequality and racism that led to the nationwide riots in 1968.

In the 1970s, he was asked to run for Congress, representing Manhattan's West Side, an opportunity he turned down because he could not imagine how he could raise the $250,000 then regarded as necessary to mount a campaign for the House. In 1973, he became Deputy Commissioner of NYC's Department of Consumer Affairs under Mayor Abe Beame.

In 1980, he took a position at Chemical Bank. At the time he retired in 2016, he was Managing Director and Associate General Counsel, Corporate Law.

After his retirement from Chase, Egan enjoyed sharing his love of theater, music, art and fine dining with his family and many friends. He continued to be an active fund-raiser for the Yale Law School and was Secretary of his 1961 class. He continued to support the Democratic Party and liberal causes, as well as many cultural organizations. He was actively involved in non-profit organizations including VOLS (Volunteers of Legal Service), where he was a Charter Director, Board Treasurer and an active board member for over 40 years; Greenwich House, a settlement house in New York's Greenwich Village; and the Gay Liberation Front in the years following the 1969 riots at Stonewall.

For more than 50 years, Egan lived in Greenwich Village. Though urged by his family from time to time to move somewhere else, he remained committed to living always in a place one could get a cup of coffee at 2 am.

Among his survivors are: his partner, Sue Ann Kahn, a noted flutist and educator and the daughter of renowned architect Louis I. Kahn; his former wife and lifelong friend, Susan Selden Egan; a daughter, Dr. Abbe Irene Egan of El Paso, TX; his daughter-in-law Sarah McDonald Egan of Pelham, NY, and five grandchildren. He was predeceased by his son, Patrick Brendan Robert Egan, in 2019.

A memorial celebration for Egan will be held on October 13, 2024, at the Yale Club, 50 Vanderbilt Ave in Manhattan at 2 pm. In lieu of flowers, please consider a contributions in Egan's name to Experience Camps, an organization that transforms the lives of grieving children though summer camps and year-round initiatives, the Yale Law School or Pelotonia, an organization that funds cancer research.

(Based on death notice in The New York Times)