Egan’s passing was grieved with heavy hearts across his community, but overpowering that grief was the powerful intent on honoring Egan’s legacy. The same night he died, his community gathered to paint the Rock on Michigan State University's campus in Egan’s honor. 

Computer science senior Lauren Funk, Egan’s girlfriend, organized the Rock painting.

“I think that it was just a great way to get people to stop and look at it, remember his name and remember how strong he was,” Funk said. “That's why we wrote ‘Sean Strong’ because truly throughout his entire battle he was such a warrior. He always kept a very positive attitude, and was so set on getting back on his feet, getting back up to school.”

Management senior George Farrington, one of Egan’s fraternity brothers at Sigma Alpha Epsilon, described the large turnout and the power of the event. He hadn't seen so many people at the Rock since the MSU shooting.

“It really was amazing,” Farrington said. “Everybody was smiling, having fun and laughing the entire time. It was really a sad time, but everyone stayed very happy because everyone knew that Sean would want us to be smiling and having fun and laughing."

The first words that came to Funk and Farrington’s minds when describing the person Egan was were "positivity" and "fighter." 

Farrington mentioned that towards the end of Egan’s last battle with cancer, the treatment and the illness took a severe toll on his health. Egan, however, stayed true to his personality and positivity, and cracked jokes about his appearance to brighten the room.

“He's that type of guy like that and just thinking about that puts a smile on my face,” Farrington said.

Being out of state, Farrington explained how he didn’t know many people when coming to MSU, but Egan and him established a friendship and helped Farrington feel at home on campus. Establishing this friendship with Egan opened Farrington’s eyes to how much someone can go through with cancer. 

Farrington, on the behalf of his fraternity, organized a GoFundMe to support Egan's family. Farrington described the financial toll that comes with three rounds of cancer treatment, tuition and fraternity dues.

“We just knew a lot of the financial charges they were going through and how heavy of a financial burden it's been on them.” Farrington said.

The fundraiser has been a large success, according to Farrington, currently exceeding 30,000 dollars in funds. 

Funk emphasized Egan’s resilience through it all. 

“If something seemed impossible, he would do it and not look back and not think twice about it, and I can name hundreds of things he did that seemed impossible that he was able to accomplish,” Funk said. 

Egan constantly demonstrated resilience. Funk explained that he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in his left leg in 2020. After 16 rounds of Chemotherapy and a leg resection surgery, he was able to finish out his senior year of high school with his strongest grades. 

“He was able to go through a lot of physical therapy and get off crutches, get off a walker and be able to walk normally again,” Funk said. 

May of 2024 was when Egan was diagnosed with an extremely rare metastasis of osteosarcoma in his brain stem. It was something that the doctors had never seen before. However, the daunting diagnosis didn’t waver Egan. He was determined to do whatever he could to get back on his feet. 

“He didn't care about the odds, because he was the odds,” Funk said. 

Through excruciating rounds of gamma radiation, surgery and endless rounds of chemotherapy, the doctors found the original tumor was gone, but the tumor spread across his body before its disappearance and unfortunately took his life. 

According to Funk, Egan loved being at the business college at MSU as well as the classes he took. Learning to become a better student and person were large aspirations of his, and he wanted to make a difference in the world. 

As a student in Broad, his advisor, Sherri Henry mentioned she was honored to reflect on Eagan's journey as a Spartan and his legacy. 

“His compassion and care for others was obvious in the classroom and outside of the classroom,” Henry said. “As an undergraduate in BUS 101 freshman seminar course, Sean took his responsibilities seriously. I could always count on Sean to lead his assigned team of students and to assist other students.”

MSU and the Broad College of Business acknowledged Egan’s academic achievements and contributions by awarding him the Bachelor of Arts degree in Finance. 

Egan continues to shine at MSU, and will continue to; his community will keep his light alive.