Sean Egan

Sean's life (1942 – 2005) was devoted to education and a commitment to personal health, fitness and well-being. Sean succumbed to the frailties of life and died after suffering a cardiac arrest on the slopes of Mount Everest on Friday April 29th, 2005. He was aiming to be the oldest Canadian to stand on the summit of Mount Everest and wanted to use that profile to tell people to live life to the fullest.

Dr. Sean Egan B.A., D.E.S., Ph.D. Sports Psychology

Educator, Adventurer, Athlete, Father and Friend.

Associate Professor of Human Kinetics, University of Ottawa

Sean was born in County Clare, Eire, on 22nd March 1942. He earned his Diploma in Education in Waterford in Ireland and completed a BA in Literature at University College Dublin. He also began a successful amateur career as a boxer, winning Irish and Commonwealth championships. He briefly considered a professional career in boxing but decided to devote his life to learning and education. From 1964 to 1968 he taught in primary schools in Tipperary before heading to the University of Paris in France where he got a DES in Education Physique at ENSEPS. He may have decided that boxing was to take a back seat in his life but his devotion to personal fitness and well being was astounding. At the age of 63 he had a resting heart rate of 38 (a normal man has a rate of about 72) and his blood pressure was 95/50.

In 1972 he moved to Eugene, Oregon in the USA where he achieved a PhD in Sport Psychology and Motor Learning and started running marathons, achieving 3:10 in his last one. He walked from Oregon to San Francisco in 14 days covering 39 miles a day.

He moved to Almonte, Ontario in Canada in 1977 and taught at the University of Ottawa in both French and English for 27 years. He was an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Human Sciences in the School of Human Kinetics.

He cycled across the USA from the West Coast to Ottawa in 34 days in 2002. In 2004 he cycled across Canada from Vancouver to Ottawa in just 28 days.

He first became entranced with Mount Everest (29,028 feet) in 1998 when he took a group of 12 students from the University of Ottawa on a hiking trip. Two years later he returned as part of a Canadian expedition to Base Camp to do research on surviving the environment. By 2005 he had assembled a group of individuals from the academic community to plan a return to Everest in order to complete new and innovative research and to attempt to reach the summit. He prepared by climbing Mount Aconcagua (22,841 feet) in Argentina – the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere.

Dr Egan was a published author with his book, The Psychology of Health: In Pursuit of Wellness, now in its second edition.

Sean was a man who touched many hearts and minds. He had such a positive outlook and infectious spirit that only the toughest soul could come away from a meeting with him feeling less than inspired. He never lost or forgot his Irish roots; his humour and the twinkle in his eye never deserted him; and he was always driven to go further and higher than he had done before. Ad Astra was his mantra – Aim High – and that was how he lived his life.

Sean leaves behind his adoring children, Seamas and Anna and their mother, Mary.  He will be lovingly remembered by his special friend Jane, friends and family in Ireland and Almonte.

Article on Sean Egan, by Benoît Renaud, La Rotunde, 12th September 2005.