Edward McGonagle, 84

Edward F.C. McGonagle, a resident of Pelham for 43 years, died on July 19, 2010 in Westerly, RI. He was 84.

Born in Medford, MA to Daniel and Mary Ellen McGonagle, he served in the Navy in Puerto Rico during World War II. He attended Princeton University, graduating cum laude in 1948. Later, he earned a master’s degree at Yale and also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and Heidelberg University in Germany. While working full time, he attended night classes at Boston College Law School, where he met his future wife, Mary Sullivan.

After graduating from law school, Mary and Ed married in Cambridge, MA. They moved to Pittsburgh, PA where he taught law at Duquesne University. They returned to Massachusetts when he received a Ford fellowship at Harvard Law School, earning him a LLM degree.

Over the next 42 years, he taught estate and trust law, administrative law and land use planning at Fordham University School of Law in New York City. His expertise was also used by a range of branches of governments, including the New York State Legislature. Following New York City’s financial crisis in the 1970s, he was instrumental in rewriting the City of New York’s Administrative Code. He worked to revitalize the South Bronx and taught senior citizens about estate planning. He was well-loved for his dry wit and his many anecdotes. In 2009, he was awarded Professor Emeritus status from Fordham.

His passion was travel, whether it be walking the Great Wall in China or escaping to a family farm in New Hampshire. He also loved to row at the New York Athletic Club and attending the ballet and opera.

In Pelham, he and his wife were long-time parishioners of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church.

He is survived by his five children: Edward and his wife, Mary Ellen, of Granada Hills, CA; Maria and her husband, Clark Melrose, of San Francisco, CA; Peter and his wife, Mary Jo, of Southport, CT; Rosemary and her husband, Russ Percival, of Lone Jack, MO; and Christina and her husband, Bard Haase, of Westerly, RI. Also surviving were 15 grandchildren—Christina, Patrick, Catherine A., Lily, John, Maya, Katrina, Julia, Catherine R., Emmanuela, Grace, Rosemary, Christopher, Cecelia and William. He is also survived by his sister-in-law, Phyllis McGonagle of Lynnfield MA, and his brother-in-law, John B. Sullivan, and his wife, Mildred, of Cambridge MA. He was predeceased by is wife, Mary.

Funeral services were held at Saint Clare Church in Westerly, RI. The family requests that any memorial donations be made to Southern Poverty Law Center or the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.

This is part of the July 30, 2010 online edition of The Pelham Weekly.