Christopher Peter Deegan

Nothing so adequately explains Chris as his favorite poem, The Road Not Taken, composed by Robert Frost in 1915.

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim

Because it was grassy and wanted wear,

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I marked the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Christopher Peter Deegan was born in New York City on April 27, 1947 to Thomas J. Deegan, Jr. and Alice Russell Deegan, joining three siblings. Raised in the genteel and sheltered surroundings of Greenwich, Connecticut, Chris became an accomplished sailor. With his two older siblings away at boarding school, Chris became the leader of the lower five, and a fair one at that. Never a cross word from Chris.

An irregular student, Chris attended at least four elementary schools, the last being an innovative experiment called Persons. From there he enrolled in Sterling School in Craftsbury Common, Vermont. Led by a visionary headmaster, the school had only recently opened and was being built by the students. Right up Chris' alley.

At ages seventeen and eighteen, during the summer months, Chris worked at and then led the VIP operation at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair where his father was Chairman. When not at Flushing Meadows he engaged in competitive sailing in the Lightning Class across Long Island Sound and in far-flung meets.

Missing acceptance at Annapolis, and notwithstanding early acceptance at Georgetown University, it was next off to the American School in Paris for a year where socializing no doubt prevailed over studying. Thence to matriculation at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Then the paths diverged.

Having attended John Kennedy's inauguration and been stirred by his call to young people to join the Peace Corps, Chris did just that. It was a consequential decision that changed his life.

In 1970, after training in El Centro, California, Chris, having first elected to go to Africa, was assigned to India. Chris, who might have had trouble making minute rice in the kitchen on Stanwich Road, was tasked with helping to increase rice production in rural India. His life over the next two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in a small village in the Narmada Valley in central India altered his consciousness.

Chris mastered Hindi. He loved the village and its inhabitants so much he chose to remain another year on his own. Thereafter back to the U.S. where he relentlessly tried to craft a way to return to India in some constructive fashion. Over the course of ten years he share-cropped in the village where he had served as a Peace Corps volunteer.

His life then took an academic turn - an irony given his unremarkable early years as a student. Chris first acquired a Master of Arts in South Asian Studies at the University of Hawaii, later becoming a Doctoral Degree Fellow at the University's East-West Center.

During his field work in India, he met Indu Aggarwal at the Quaker Center in Rasulia where Indu's father, Partap Aggarwal, was the Director. After a two year long engagement and letters written back and forth, Chris and Indu married in a Ceremony of Fire in India on February 20, 1988. Chris' mother welcomed the couple to Greenwich for a civil ceremony in the back-country on August 20, 1988.

Thereafter, employed by the School for International Training based in Brattleboro, Vermont, Chris and Indu returned to India to serve as Academic Directors of the program in Udaipur. They subsequently returned to the U.S. and took up residence in Brattleboro where Chris served as SIT's Regional Director/Dean of Asian and Pacific Studies. Later, Chris concluded his career serving for many years as Executive Director of Study Abroad at the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Chris and Indu's love for each other was evident since the day they met. Indu growing up in upstate New York and India, and Chris having immersed himself in the Indian culture - their paths were destined to not just cross, but to be together. Quickly becoming each other's best friends, they took on life head on, not shying away from the next adventure or opportunity. Creating such a full life with so many happy memories and accomplishments.

Chris & Indu's greatest accomplishment and the love of their lives, Vibha, was born on January 13, 1995. If anyone wonders whether Chris continues to live, they have only to look at Vibha, her personality and engagement with the world around her, be it work, social, her cousins, friends, family or her Mom and Dad. Chris was a proud father.

After having touched so many across international borders, and having returned to the village almost every year, Chris passed away July 8, 2022 in Oak Park in the arms of his family after a ten month battle with stomach cancer. He made the choice at the end to control his illness, not let it control him. A brave decision in keeping with his general approach to life.

Chris is survived by his beloved wife of thirty-four years, Indu, his adored daughter, Vibha, brothers Tip Deegan of Orono, Maine, Tim Deegan of Los Angeles, California, Nick (Jo Dee) Deegan of Gillette, Wyoming and sisters Maria (Alex) Murdoch of Bar Harbor, Maine and Cecily (George) MacMillan of Coffin Point, South Carolina, together with numerous nephews, nieces, grand-nephews and grand-nieces. Chris was predeceased by two sisters, Mavourneen and Dierdre-Gael, and his parents. He is mourned by his second family in the village.

Following a memorial service at Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple in Oak Park on July 28, 2022, Indu and Vibha will cast Chris' ashes into the Narmada River in India.

The memorial service may be viewed on YouTube as "Christopher Deegan Celebration of Life - Full Service."