Richard John Egan (February 28, 1936 – August 28, 2009)[1] was an American business executive, political fundraiser, and United States Ambassador to Ireland (2001–2003).

He was a helicopter crewman in the United States Marine Corps during the end of the Korean War, then received a bachelor's in electrical engineering from Northeastern University in 1961 and a master's at M.I.T.

[2] He later was on the team that helped develop Project Apollo memory systems for NASA, and worked at Lockheed Martin, Honeywell, and Intel before founding EMC Corporation.

He played critical role in the creation of the Maureen and Richard J. Egan Engineering/Science Research Center, dedicated in October 1996 at Northeastern University, his alma mater.

[citation needed] Egan committed suicide at his Boston residence on August 28, 2009, aged 73, while suffering from Stage IV terminal lung cancer.