Marie E McGahan

Marie was born in November, 1942, to William Sylvester McGahan and Theresa Scanlon McGahan. Her first and closest lifelong friend was her older brother William Francis McGahan, who predeceased her in 1987. Their parents instilled in Marie and her brother qualities of compassion, studiousness, independence, resilience, and joyful fun. Throughout her life, Marie embodied these virtues and celebrated the Irish traditions from which they emanated.

Marie's journey was as a quintessential New Yorker. Raised in the South Bronx, she attended parochial schools and was an ardent student of history, literature, and the humanities. She exhibited special skills in mathematics, science, government, and civic affairs that would later shape and inform her career. Always at her mother’s side as a girl, Marie was active in community projects both in her neighborhood and across the city. By the time she entered high school, she had an almost encyclopedic understanding of the city and its neighborhoods.

As a young adult, Marie pursued a professional career in government service and finance. She was a pioneer as a professional woman, confronting the business culture of her era with humor and intelligence. A person of faith, Marie explored connections between mindfulness and spirituality that ultimately matured into a strength in faith that sustained her through her life. She was a devoted aunt to her niece and nephews, to whom she conveyed both her love of traditions and her excitement for the future.

Marie’s adulthood unfolded in Manhattan, where she lived from the 1970s until her passing. A proud resident of the Sutton Place neighborhood, she made many friends locally in her residential and professional communities. Her passions were travel, international business, and finance. Through her work, she traveled the country and the world, where she made many friends who remember her as a person of kindness, wisdom, and compassion.

Marie leaves behind a legacy as a pioneering professional woman in the greatest professional city of her generation. Her life was filled with the love of family and friends. She is remembered particularly for her intelligence, spirituality, resilience, and pride for Irish traditions and for New York City.

Marie will be buried with the remains of her parents in a private ceremony at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery. A celebration of her life will be held in the autumn at a time and place to be announced.

Marie E. McGahan will be deeply missed but never forgotten. May she rest in peace, knowing that her memory continues in the hearts of family and friends.