Alanna Connors

Connors, Alanna
Alanna Connors, 56 of Arlington, Massachusetts, died on February 2, 2013 at home in the arms of her family. Beloved wife of Phillip Alan Veatch, loving mother of Roy Micah Veatch, Alanna filled all of her life exploring the wonders of the world and sharing her smile and caring with friends, relatives, colleagues, and strangers. She grew up in Greenwich, CT. Born in Hong Kong, where her father Richard Connors was based as a pilot for Pan American Airlines, Alanna attended the Peak School in Hong Kong. Alanna strived to bring the lyrical patterns of her young Chinese speaking to her later writing and speaking. Her mother, Sonia Connors, raised her children with a wide freedom of artistic expression that was often expressed in dragon murals and song writing. After moving back to the United States, Alanna lived in Greenwich, Connecticut, attending Parkway elementary school and Central Junior High School. She was a Girl Scout, a counselor in the Mariners sailing program at Greenwich's Tod's Point, an Explorer at the Greenwich Audubon, a member of the choir at the Round Hill Community Church, and her elaborate gingerbread houses won awards at the Round Hill Community House's craft fairs. In 1974 she graduated from Greenwich High School where she was involved in music, theater, and the math team. Alanna received her undergraduate physics degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1978 and a Doctorate in Astrophysics at the University of Maryland in 1988, writing a thesis on Fast X-ray Transients, based upon research conducted at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. She went on to make significant contributions to the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. As a longtime advocate of rigorous data analysis, she introduced many people to the joys of Bayesian statistics. Alanna was also a research scientist at the Space Science Center at the University of New Hampshire, and a visiting Professor at Wellesley College. She was a founding member of an international astrostatistics collaboration group organized through the Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics that included specialists from a number of universities. Alanna began attending meetings of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in 1982, dragging along her then reluctant partner and leading to a deep commitment to the principles of simplicity, peace, integrity, and justice that enriched both of their lives. Alanna is survived by her mother Sonia Connors of Arlington, MA; sisters Cynthia Connors of Brooklyn, NY, Kathleen Connors of Hau'ula, Oahu, HI, Noirin Connors of London, England; and her brother Patrick Connors of New York, NY. Her father, Richard B. Connors of Greenwich, CT died in 2002. A celebration of her life will be held at Wellesley Friends Meeting, Wellesley, MA on Saturday, March 2, at 2 pm. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Alanna's name to the American Friends Service Committee, 1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102.