Don Fagan, 67, beloved college professor

During his 31 years of teaching business management at Daniel Webster College, Don Fagan was one of the most respected and well-known members of the college community. It could be heard in the voices of the hundreds who attended his wake last week and could be felt in the messages from nearly 70 former students and co-workers in a section of the school's website dedicated to his memory.

''Just before he found out that he was terminally ill, I suggested that he retire," said professor Neil Parmenter, Fagan's co-worker and friend. ''He said, 'Retire? This is much better than retirement!' "

Mr. Fagan's students assumed that his declining health would force him to leave, so they made a video honoring him to play at his retirement party. But the party never happened. Two weeks before his death, the always upbeat Fagan stopped coming to classes, and suddenly, he was gone. Today, the video is part of that online memorial.

On April 21, Mr. Fagan, 67, died at his Lowell home after a struggle with cancer of the pancreas and liver.

Born in Lowell, Mr. Fagan earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Northeastern University in 1963 and earned his master's degree in business from Rivier College in 1978. Before becoming a teacher, Fagan was a management executive for Burger King and Dunkin' Donuts and, early in his teaching career, taught junior high and high school in the Lowell area.

Before finishing his master's degree program, he began working at Daniel Webster College in Nashua in 1975 and, seven years later, was named chairman of the Business Department. In 2002, he received the college's Teacher of Excellence Award.

Throughout the years, he also taught at Nashua's Rivier College, Franklin Pierce College in Concord, N.H., and was an adjunct faculty member at Middlesex Community College in Bedford, Mass., since 1982.

Outside of the classroom, he was involved in the Northeastern University Alumni Council, the Greater Lowell Baseball and Softball Umpires Association, the Big Brother/Big Sister Association, and was a volunteer at Heritage Nursing Care Center for many years.

His wife, Eileen, applauded him for the adversity he overcame throughout his life, including bouts with colon cancer, many surgeries for health ailments, and the deaths of four of his seven children from various illnesses. ''The other day he said to me, 'This is really something, I'm still making jokes,' " she said. ''That was him."

Parmenter remembers how Mr. Fagan never missed a sporting event at the school and was respected for his interest and involvement in the lives of his students. ''A lot of us cannot seem to find time for those things, correcting papers and doing all the things that we do," Parmenter said. ''But he was always there for his students."

Lee Zerrilla, a senior at Daniel Webster College, remembered how Mr. Fagan could always be seen around campus. ''Frequently, if he wasn't in class or in his office, he was in The Common Thread [a student center on campus], chatting with everyone about anything at all," said Zerrilla. ''He's irreplaceable; he's kind of a fixture here."

Mr. Fagan was instrumental in cofounding the college's chapter of the business organization Phi Beta Lambda. He and Parmenter worked every year on a fall conference for the high school version of the group, Future Business Leaders of America, catering to 400 high school students in New Hampshire.

A couple of years ago, the college offered a two-week class in Hong Kong, and Mr. Fagan joined the students on the trip. ''A couple of the students this year that wanted to go on the Hong Kong trip didn't have enough money," said Parmenter. ''He reached into his pocket and gave each of them $100."

Another time, Parmenter recalled, a student came to Fagan and told him that she did not have enough money to finish her last semester at the school. Without hesitation, he loaned her $6,000 so she could graduate.

Mr. Fagan also loved airplanes and had a private pilot's license, but never had enough money to own a plane. Instead, he flew along with friends and former students whenever he could. According to his wife, he often took trips across the country to visit former students, who remember his upbeat attitude and fun teaching style.

Zerrilla had known of Fagan since his freshman year, but was not able to take any of his classes until this semester. In his Intro to Investments class, as with all others that Fagan taught, Zerrilla and other students affectionately referred to his style of teaching as ''Faganomics."

''As a teacher, I think he was excellent because he'd been around enough that he had a story about everything," said Zerrilla. ''That was his way of getting you to learn things, through anecdotal experience."

In addition to his wife, he leaves a son, David of Westminster; two daughters, Diana Bergeron of Atkinson, N.H., and Julie Fagan of Townsend; a brother, Eric of Chula Vista Calif.; a sister-in-law, Margie Lawlor, nine grandchildren, and a great-grandson.

A funeral Mass was said April 25 at the Immaculate Conception Church in Lowell and burial was at Tewksbury Cemetery in Tewksbury.