Philip Egan, a designer of Tucker automobile, dies at 88

[TuckerCar]

Phil was a great man and a great supporter of TACA. He will be dearly missed, and our thoughts and prayers go out to his wife, Ginny.

Beth Ashley
Posted: 12/30/2008 06:19:46 PM PST


Fairfax resident Philip S. Egan, who helped design an innovative automobile in the 1940s and later consulted on sound technology for Lucasfilm, died Friday. He was 88.
Mr. Egan was one of the designers of the innovative Tucker 1948 automobile, later celebrated in a 1988 Francis Ford Coppola movie, "Tucker: The Man and His Dream." Mr. Egan designed the driver control area and other details of the car, a four-door, six-passenger sedan with a water-cooled six-cylinder rear engine. Only 48 vehicles were produced.

"I always thought of my father as a Renaissance man, with so many diverse talents," said his daughter, Frances Anamosa of Napa. "He had a wealth of knowledge - ask him anything and he knew the answer."

Mr. Egan was an artist, designer, writer and amateur astronomer. After his work with Preston Tucker, he became a senior product designer with Sears, Roebuck in Chicago, focusing on household appliances that bore the Sears and Kenmore nameplates.

He ran his own design practice for several years in the Chicago area before moving to San Francisco, where he was part of Walter Landor's design team on a remodeled ferry boat moored at the Embarcadero.

He moved from San Francisco to Mill Valley, where he designed Phonic Ear hearing aids; later he again opened his own design business. His clients included Lucasfilm Ltd., where he was a consultant at THX and on a new editing device at Skywalker Ranch.

Mr. Egan wrote a number of books, including "Design and Destiny, the Making of the Tucker Automobile" and three books for young people, "Space for Everyone," "Where In The World," and "Rivers of the World," all published by Rand McNally. He also designed four scientific teaching calculators.
He recently completed another book, a history of the 20th Century told in easy-to-read anecdotal style. His daughter will be seeking a publisher.

Mr. Egan was born on Dec. 13. 1920, in Oak Park, Ill. He attended private schools in Michigan and New York before joining the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II.

He is survived by his wife, Virginia, daughters Frances Anamosa of Napa and Sandi Strand of Solana Beach, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

At Mr. Egan's request, no funeral will be held.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Doctors Without Borders, 333 Seventh Ave., 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10001, or to a charity of one's choice.

Contact Beth Ashley via e-mail at bashley@marinij.com

[Tuckerfan1053]

I exchanged a few letters and emails with Mr. Egan, and I have to say that he was sharp as a tack.

[Larry Clark]

The New York Times has printed a fairly long obituary story about Phil Egan and the Tucker car. You can find it at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/autom ... .html?_r=2. You may need to copy and paste the web address in to your browser to get to it (I just successfully did it).

Larry

[Larry Clark]

You may also want to see the Business Week article on the sale of Tucker #1038 of 11/13/08. The article plays up the $1M sales price and provides an upbeat account of the Tucker car: http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/c ... =rss_daily

Again, you may need to copy and paste this in your web browser for it to work for you.

Larry

[tatraman]

Now that Egan is dead, the only remaining designer of the Tucker automobile is Budd Steinhilber.