William E. Egan

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William Eugene Egan, 69, of 2920 7th Ave. S., a union labor leader and electrician, died Saturday of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at his home.
Services will be private.
Survivors include his wife, Marlene Egan, of Great Falls; three sons, Edward William Egan of Helena, Richard Dale Egan of Great Falls and James Frederick Egan of Butte; a daughter, Pamela Lynn Egan, of Las Vegas; two brothers, John and Richard Egan, both of California; a sister, Carol Ballenger, of Florida; and five grandchildren, Jeremy and Nicholas Egan, born to Ed and his wife, Lisa; Toni and Joshua Dusek, of Richard and Kristen Egan's family; and Molly Egan, born to Jim and Donna Egan.
He is also survived by a great-granddaughter, Hailey Aurora.
Bill was more than a father - he was a dad. In addition, Bill was always more like a brother than an in-law for the McEwen clan, Marlene's 16 brothers and sisters and their families: Sylvia and Don Eich of Sandpoint, Idaho; Patsy and Mitch Gasper, Janet and Mike McCarthy, Diane and Tom Cannon, David and Emelia McEwen and Danny McEwen, all of Butte; Myles Carpenter of Melrose; Frances and Will Wyland of Salmon, Idaho; Gary and Rhonda McEwen of Bixby, Okla.; John and Judy McEwen of Tacoma, Wash.; Rich and Margie McEwen of Helena; Donna and Rex Pruitt of Taylorville, Ill.; Carol and Steve Mullaney of Green River, Wyo.; and Terri and Scott McBride of Buffalo, Wyo. Bill had 59 nieces and nephews who were, each and every one, very important to him.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Charlotte and Eugene Egan; Marlene's parents, Frederick "Bud" McEwen and Ruth Ayers McEwen; Marlene's sisters, Shari McEwen and Rosie McEwen Carpenter; her brother, Buddy McEwen; and a nephew, Pat McCarthy.
Bill was born Aug. 23, 1936, in Hawthorne, Calif., to Charlotte Baldwin Egan and raised by Charlotte and his stepfather, Eugene Egan.
Raised on several working ranches, where his family raised cattle, sheep and hogs, Bill continued to be involved for many years in cattle operations even after his family moved to Butte, where his stepfather worked in the mines.
Bill's first professional work was in the mining industry, beginning in the Butte area where he studied the geological formation of the Boulder batholith, did contract mining for the Anaconda Mining Co., and worked in shaft sinking, fire protection, and mining and shipping manganese. Even during other phases of his career, Bill operated silver properties under private leases and was listed as a Montana Silver Producer in the World Mining Journal in the early 1960s.
Bill and Marlene Ruth McEwen of Walkerville were married Sept. 30, 1956.
While still in Butte and beginning to raise his family with Marlene, Bill continued to work in the milling and smelting industry for several years. Working at the Butte Concentrator, Bill began his trade as an electrician, later serving as a foreman for operations and maintenance of a 1.5 million horsepower plant.
After brief stints in the construction industry, including heavy highway and rock work, Egan concentrated on the electrical portion of his career, working in all aspects of that trade, ranging from inside wireman, wireman welder and cable splicer, to foreman, general foreman and job steward. Much of his work was in national defense and security systems, but he also did residential, commercial and industrial projects, his expertise resulting in scores of properly wired and functioning homes, hospitals, shopping centers and office buildings, not to mention an oil refinery or two.
Along the way, Bill, often with Marlene, owned and operated several successful businesses, including a sandwich and pasty shop in Great Falls, residential real estate interests, a small cattle operation and two Montessori-based preschools.
Despite his affection for and pride in all these much varied endeavors, Bill Egan is perhaps most well known for his work as a labor union leader, which really blossomed beginning in 1976.
"Labor Union Leader" is the title for his entry in the 21st edition of Who's Who in the West, which summarized Bill's early work in this arena. A member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers since the mid-1960s, Bill was elected business manager of IBEW Local 122 in 1976, and served on the board of directors of the Montana Electrical Joint Apprenticeship Training Program in Helena, starting in 1976 as well.
Bill also served as a trustee of the Montana Electricians Health and Accident Fund, as an advisor trustee for the 8th District Electricians Pension Trust of Denver, and as vice president of the Montana State Building and Construction Trades Council, all beginning in 1976.
Throughout his career, Bill continued to serve on such boards, shifting his emphasis more specifically to the political area in 1981, when he began work for example on the Great Falls Economic Growth Council and became an Advisory Board member of the Pacific Northwest Power Planning Council.
Bill retired from his position as business manager of IBEW Local 122 on July 31, 1993, after 17 years of service. The Tribune article on the day of his retirement emphasized Bill's successful mediation of labor problems that threatened completion of construction projects at Malmstrom Air Force Base in the 1980s and praised his work as an innovator in creating labor-management cooperative committees. Then-Gov. Ted Schwinden said, "Bill Egan has always been oriented toward results, not rhetoric ... and that fits his backstage role of mediating conflict."
That same philosophy, a blend of the pragmatic and the idealistic, coupled with a passionate enthusiasm for just causes, characterized every day of Bill's life.
After his retirement in 1993, Bill and Marlene continued several business endeavors, but primarily enjoyed spending time with their family and friends. They especially loved snowbirding in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., and traveling the Southwest with lifelong friends Tom and Laverne Horn of Butte, visiting their sons, daughters-in-law and their families in Montana and daughter Pam and her partner, Christopher C. Hudgins, in Las Vegas.
Bill was proud to have persons of all persuasions know that he was a lifelong liberal Democrat. Despite some indications to the contrary for one of such political persuasion, he maintained that he was also a profound and eternal optimist. A member of Unity Church of Great Falls, Bill believed that the good one does for others is the sum total of one's legacy; he told his family that, in the end, love is all that matters, and that one learns love through forgiveness.
Bill succumbed to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease after a battle of many years. He wanted it known that this disease resulted from years of cigarette smoking and from exposure to industrial pollutants throughout much of his career.
His family, the labor movement, and the state of Montana will miss him sorely, but his spirit, like Tom Joad's, remains in the rocks and the rivers and the mines and the mills, and the fights for economic justice that surround us all.
"Tap 'er light, pard."
Memorials in Bill's name may be made to the Patrick McCarthy Scholarship Fund at Montana Tech, 1300 W. Park St., Butte, MT 59701, or to the McLaughlin Research Institute, 1520 23rd St. S., Great Falls, MT 59405.
Condolences may be sent online to schniderfuneralhome.com and/or greatfallstribune.com/obituaries.