EMC To Mourn Loss Of Co-Founder With Public Service

The visitation for employees, former employees, friends and colleagues will be held from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. EDT at 21 Coslin Drive in Southborough, Mass., with a memorial service immediately after.

At press time, there were no further details on the service.

The Boston Herald reported that the 73-year-old Egan, who was battling cancer, died last Friday of a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head inside his condominium at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston. EMC is not commenting on the report of the apparent suicide.

EMC Chairman, CEO and President Joe Tucci sent an e-mail to all 40,000 EMC employees over the weekend mourning the passing of Egan.

"The world has lost a great man and a great leader," said Tucci in prepared statement. "On behalf of more than 40,000 EMC employees from around the world, we extend our deepest condolences to Mrs. Egan and the entire family. Thirty years ago this week, Dick founded EMC with his partner, Roger Marino. Dick's vision became one of the world's top technology companies, and his legacy will live on through the tens of thousands of lives he affected in so many positive ways. We have all lost a great mentor and friend."

Egan's passing came 30 years to the week after he and former college roommate Roger Marino started an office furniture supply company that they transformed into the worldwide leader in external disk storage with 40,000 employees and $15 billion in annual sales.

Egan, a fierce competitor who represented the "E" in EMC, was EMC's CEO until 1992 and chairman of the board until 2001.

After his retirement from EMC, Egan, a major fund-raiser for former President George W. Bush, was appointed ambassador to Ireland and served from 2001 to 2003.

"In a life filled with achievement and service, Dick Egan had a truly profound impact. He served our country with honor as a U.S. Marine during the Korean conflict. He and Maureen raised a wonderful family," said Paul T. Dacier, EMC executive vice president and general counsel, who joined the company in 1990, in a prepared statement. "Dick was an inspiration to all of us. We are saddened by his passing."

Keith Norbie, vice president of sales for Nexus Information Systems, a Minnetonka, Minn.-based EMC partner, said Egan's entrepreneurial spirit helped create the modern storage IT industry.

"It is a passing of a patriarch," Norbie said. "He moved things forward and created what has become a $20 billion company."

That company has opened the door for partners such as Nexus to build big businesses around storage solutions, Norbie said.

Nexus has been an EMC partner for a decade and has a built a significant storage practice as part of its $30 million business.

"EMC made the channel connection so now we have the ability to be part of that $20 billion success story," he said. "I didn't know him personally but his reputation was significant. He is one of the industry forefathers and heavyweights."

"It takes something simplistic and yet completely cutting edge to transform an industry," Norbie added. "EMC put cache in front of disk and launched a multibillion global powerhouse that is the envy of the industry. Now they own two of the three companies that are redefining the IT data center: VMware with virtualization and Data Domain with deduplication."