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Henry Chandler Egan most definitely left Chicago to get away from his father, who thought golf was “unseemly.” He had been urgent “Chan” right into a distasteful wrestle to change into a profitable man of enterprise. “My father was torn between obligation and pleasure,” remembered Chan’s daughter, Eleanor.
Chan was one of many nation’s most gifted golfers , Novice Nationwide Champion in 1904 and 1905, and silver medal winner within the 1904 Olympics.
He had liked golf from the primary time he realized to swing a membership within the cow pastures of Illinois.
He had married a well-connected Chicago lady, whose father was a brother of Andrew McNally, co-founder of the Rand McNally map firm.
A month after their daughter was born in April 1911, Chan arrived in Medford and bought an orchard off Foothill Highway.
There he personally designed a pine bungalow on the property.
Together with his new house constructed, Chan returned to his spouse and daughter in Chicago and introduced he was transferring completely to the Rogue Valley and giving up golf for good.
The transfer was everlasting; nevertheless, golf was too vital in Chan’s life.
In Medford, he discovered former Harvard classmates Alfred and Leonard Carpenter, who have been within the strategy of constructing the city’s first golf course.
They requested for Chan’s recommendation, and he was hooked on golf over again.
Just a few years later, when that first course failed, Chan went to work to design one other and higher course on Spring Avenue.
It marked the start of a brand new profession as a golf course architect.
Over time he would design over 30 programs nationwide, assist to switch and enhance the well-known Pebble Seaside course in California, and nonetheless discover time to design and construct Medford’s Rogue Valley Nation Membership.
Between building initiatives, he continued to play aggressive golf and managed to win various newbie tournaments.
When he went up in opposition to the professionals in tournaments from The Masters to Pebble Seaside, his talent embarrassed fairly a number of.
He performed so competitively into his 40s that many referred to as him “the grand previous man of golf.” Some would chuckle at his golf golf equipment, saying they have been “sufficiently old to vote.” These have been the identical golf equipment he had carried since he was a youngster and, certainly, they have been older than most of his caddies.
In late March 1936, whereas strolling a course he was designing in Everett, Washington, Chan, 52, collapsed and was taken to the hospital, the place he died April 5 from a extreme case of pneumonia.
A 12 months later, in August 1937, a memorial celebration was held on the Rogue Valley Nation Membership. {Golfing} greats, together with the immortal Bobby Jones, his private buddy, have been readily available to dedicate a water fountain to Chan’s reminiscence.
Designed by the identical architectural agency that had not too long ago designed the brand new state capitol constructing in Salem, and original from Southern Oregon granite, the fountain mirrored the simplicity of the person with a solely a bronze likeness of the beloved sportsman mounted to its base. “It’s a shock to know that so grand a fellow and so fantastic a golfer is gone,” Bobbie Jones mentioned in the course of the memorial service. “We'll all miss him terribly.” San Francisco Chronicle sports activities editor Harry Smith mentioned Chan “was at all times a gentleman with character.
He performed golf for the love of the game.
In that he was a very good loser when issues went in opposition to him and the very best kind of a sportsman when he gained.
He is without doubt one of the most interesting gents I've ever identified.” Chan’s ashes have been scattered close to the Medford house he liked.
Author Invoice Miller is the creator of 5 books, together with “Historical past Snoopin’,” a group of his earlier historical past columns and tales.