1881 – 1934 (September 6)
William Leo Egan was born in Easton, New York, on September 27, 1881, the son of Cornelius Egan and Katherine Cullin. His younger brother, George, was also a member of our Province. William attended local public schools and Mechanicville High School, before entering the novitiate at Villanova, Pennsylvania in 1901. He professed simple vows on July 2, 1902, and was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Edmond Prendergast at the Overbrook Seminary on May 24, 1906. He obtained an S.T.L. in 1908 and the S.T.B. in 1911.
From 1906 until 1926, Father Egan served at Saint Rita's High School in Chicago, Illinois, as teacher, Vice President, and from 1918 as President. In 1926, he was appointed rector of St. Clare of Montefalco Parish, and, in 1932, prior and pastor of Saint Augustine Parish in Troy, New York.
In June, 1934, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, to which he succumbed on September 6, 1934 at the age of 53. His brother, Father George Egan, O.S.A. was celebrant of the Requiem Mass, as which Bishop Edmund Gibbons of Albany presided. Among the many Augustinians present in the sanctuary were Father Joseph Hickey, Assistant General, and Father Mortimer Sullivan, Prior Provincial. Father Egan was buried in the Augustinian section of Saint Saint John's Cemetery in Troy.