Obituary of Mary Egan

Ballston LakeMary Joan Koonz Egan passed away on Monday, February 4, 2013, at the age of 93. Mary was born in Albany on June 22, 1919, the second child to her parents, Casper J. Koonz and Mary Coates Konnz. Mary was a very bright young lady and skipped a grade in elementary school. She graduated from the Academy of the Holy Names when she was only 16. The nuns did not want her to pursue her education at a secular school fearing for her well-being. But, Mary enrolled in the teaching program at New York State Teachers College. An ambitious student, she won the Agnes Feuterer Award for her thespian talents. She was always grateful for her free education from her alma mater and continued to support the school, now known as UAlbany. She received her degree in library science in 1940. After graduation she worked in New York City for Major Seversky, author of Victory Through Air Power. She was employed by the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Central Schools during WWII and met her future husband, William W. Egan, a Ballston Lake realtor. She took a few years to have her four daughters and then returned to work as a librarian and as a student at UAlbany where she received first an MS in education and later an MS in educational administration. She has held library posts at the Albany Public Library, Albany Medical Center, various schools in Schenectady and the Shenendehowa School District. From 1961 until her retirement in 1999, she was director of libraries and media services in the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake School District. In the early 1960s, she recognized the significance of the name change from library, with its emphasis on books, to the media-inclusive information retrieval center. Her vision and creativity brought technology to her library and won her school district an Encyclopedia Britannica Award for the greatest improvement in elementary schools in the United States. She was also awarded the New York Libraries Association Outstanding School Library Innovation Award. Mrs. Egan wrote, produced and hosted a series of televised library skills lessons on WRGB and later on PBS. The series ran for more than 15 years. Mrs. Egan served as president of the School Library media section of the State Library Association, as state chairman of the Junior Great Books Program, and as adjunct professor at her alma mater teaching Literature for Children and Library Administration and Curriculum Materials. A few years ago, Mary Egan was awarded the Excellence in Education Award from UAlbany. This award pays tribute to alumni for extraordinary distinction in the field of education, school service and administration/supervision. Mrs. Egan found time to serve many community, church and professional organizations. A prolific writer and sometimes poet, she wrote articles in School Library Journal and Instructor magazines. She also published the History of our Lady of Grace where she was a communicant. Her achievements won her listing in the seventh edition of Who's Who of American Women. In recent years, well into her eighties, she self-published a book entitled Billy's Village, stories of her husband's hometown of Ballston Lake. At the time of her death, she was working on a second book entitled Mary's City, a book about her life in Arbor Hill and trips to the Adirondacks with her family. Her husband, William W. Egan, predeceased her. She leaves her four daughters, Maureen (Robert) Buhrmaster of Diamond Point and Naples, FL, Eileen Mack of Clifton Park, Tracy Egan of Ballston Lake, and Margaret (James) Cummings of Thousand Oaks, CA. In addition she leaves six grandchildren, Kate Buhrmaster, Sarah Buhrmaster, Timothy Mack, Maura Mack Hisgen, Bridget Blythe Briere, Emmie Cummings and her three great-grandchildren, Maeve Hisgen, Caroline Mack and Katharine Hisgen. Funeral service, Saturday afternoon 1:30 at Our Lady of Grace Church where a Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated. Calling hours Saturday morning 10:30 to 1:30 at the church, 73 Midline Rd., Ballston Lake. Interment, St. Mary's Cemetery, Ballston Spa, later in the spring. Memorial donations may be made to Our Lady of Grace Parish Center, 73 Midline Rd., Ballston Lake, NY; BH-BL Central School, Foundation for School Libraries, 88 Lakehill Rd., Burnt Hills, NY; or to the UAlbany Foundation/Buhrmaster Family Scholarship in honor of Mary and William Egan, PO Box 761, Albany, NY 12201.