Death of a Colleague

Former deparment head, Diversity Award winner dies| wkuherald.com

by Tabitha Waggoner

Western’s psychology department members have lost a close friend and former colleague.

John M. O’Connor, who was the psychology department head from 1975 to 2001, died Saturday in Bowling Green.

O’Connor received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Syracuse University in 1961 before receiving his master’s degree in 1965 at George Peabody University, where he met current psychology Professor Sam McFarland.

McFarland, who will speak at O’Connor’s memorial service, said they went to several psychology seminars together and got to know each other better over the years.

He described O’Connor as a “loyal Irishman, always wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day.”

Psychology Professor Bill Pfohl said O’Connor was very friendly and outgoing.

“He would talk to you like he knew you for a long time,” he said.

Pfohl said O’Connor was adamant about making student voices heard.

“Sometimes he even supported students over the faculty,” he said.

Pfohl said O’Connor served in the Air Force for 23 years.

At the Air Force Academy, O’Connor started a race relations program to help minority cadets feel like they belonged, McFarland said.

He said O’Connor continued that concern at Western, where he co-chaired Western’s first Race Relations Task Force in the late 1970s, chaired the Concerns of Black Students Committee from 1978 to 1984 and co-chaired an Ethnic Relations Task Force in the mid-1990s.

O’Connor also advised the Division of Student Affairs on the recruitment and retention of minority students, McFarland said.

Because of his 20-plus years of service, Western’s Diversity Committee selected O’Connor in 2001 from more than 20 nominees as the first faculty recipient of the Diversity Award, according to the psychology department’s website.

McFarland said his last conversation with O’Connor was when he called to ask him about O’Connor’s wife, Meg, who had been in the hospital for a couple weeks.

“His last words to me were, ‘I love you, Sam,’ and mine to him, ‘I love you too, John,’” he said.

O’Connor’s family couldn’t be reached for comment.

Visitation will take place from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. today at J.C. Kirby and Son Funeral Chapel on Lovers Lane. A memorial service will follow the visitation.

Dr. O’Connor died Sat., Dec. 12, 2009 at his home.