July 21, 2006 Peter A. Egan

Word comes from his classmate Bill Colton and his family that our classmate, Peter A. Egan, died at home in Farmington, Connecticut, on July 21, 2006 of pancreatic cancer.

Peter lived a romantic life, and in many respects the high point of it came on Feb. 21, 1963, the day he met his wife, the former Fausta Romiti, an Italian citizen, while working for the Daily American newspaper in Rome. On Oct. 20, 1963, Peter and Fausta began 42 years of marriage. Always very close to his family and friends, his wife described him as the "love of my life."

Repeatedly, after taking a job with Newsday, the Long Island newspaper, Peter and Fausta returned to Italy on vacation, and when Peter left Newsday, he took a job as director of public relations for the airline, TWA, stationed in Rome, where he and his young family, now including two daughters, lived for several years.

When Peter was told by his doctor he had pancreatic cancer, he took chemotherapy for several weeks, but his doctor finally advised him that it wasn't working and he only had a short time to live. Fausta said that she and Peter immediately decided to pay one last visit to Italy. They spent a week in the Italian lake country in the north, and a week in Rome, and celebrated their happy marriage and their love of  Italy. Then, they returned home. In its obituary, the Hartford Courant, remarked that Egan had "a passion for Italy" that never languished.

Peter enered Dartmouth from Malverne High School in Malverne, N.Y. In Hanover, he majored in English, played two years of football and a year of rugby, skied a great deal, belonged to the Newman Club and was a member of the Theta Delta Chi fraternity.

Graduating from Dartmouth, he first served in the military and then took his first journalistic job with the Knickerbocker News in Albany, N.Y. After his TWA job, Peter moved to Farmington, where he worked as director of advertising for the Heublein company and later Home Insurance and Prudential Realty. He was a Proclaimer at the Church of St. Patrick and served on the board of Tunxis Village, the neighborhood where he lived. He continued to golf and ski.

Peter is survived by his wife, two daughters and sons-in-law, Rita E. and Eugene F. Mockler of Fairfield, CT., and Monica E. and Brian J. McGrath of Fairfield, his sister, Virginia Egan of Denver, and eight grandchildren in which he took great pride. The oldest was 13.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Church of St. Patrick, 110 Main St., Farmington, Ct. 06032, or to a charity of the donor's choice.

Ken Reich