Terence Gregory Connor

1942 - 2024

Terence Gregory Connor

December 28, 1942 - October 4, 2024

Coral Gables, Florida - Accomplished attorney and beloved brother, husband, father, uncle, and grandfather, Terence Gregory Connor, died on October 4, 2024. Terry was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 28, 1942, the third of Joseph and Rosalie Connor's four sons. After his father took a job as Registrar for Georgetown University, Terry grew up in the Washington, DC, suburbs, graduating first from Gonzaga College High School (1960) and then from Georgetown University (1964), where he earned a bachelor's degree in Philosophy.

With war in Vietnam churning, Terry volunteered for ROTC service in the United States Air Force. After graduating from law school at Seton Hall University in 1967, Terry served his country and fellow servicemen as an attorney with the Air Force Judge Advocate General's Corps from 1968-1973, including a tour in the Vietnam theater at the Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base, located near Udon Thani, Thailand. Earning the rank of Captain, Terry's experience as a JAG lawyer was the source of great pride and inspiration throughout his life, providing him with a launching pad for his legal career, lifelong friendships, and a bottomless reservoir of anecdotes and wisdom. More importantly, while stationed at Lowry AFB in Denver, Colorado, Terry met the love of his life and future wife, Julie Kaye Berry, who was then a high school English teacher.

After returning from his post in Thailand, Terry and Julie lived together near Seattle, WA, and then married on December 18, 1971, in Julie's hometown of Prescott, Arizona. The newlyweds moved to Washington, DC, where Terry continued to serve his country as a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division. Terry was part of a team of trial lawyers that enforced federal laws requiring state and local police forces to end discriminatory hiring practices. Terry also found time to earn a master's degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1975. Terry's DOJ service would have lasting social impacts and introduced him to yet another cadre of colleagues, supervisors, and friends who would influence and guide his life and career. While living in Washington, DC, and then in nearby Garrett Park, MD, Terry and Julie welcomed their first two children, Cormac and Kristin.

In 1976, Terry left government service to become Labor Counsel for National Airlines, which was based in Miami. The family moved to Coral Gables, Florida. Although Terry would joke for the rest of his life that his job at National was "only supposed to be for two years," the family continued to grow, with children Etain and Brendan born into the house that Julie, Terry, and their children still call home. All four Connor children would graduate from Coral Gables Senior High School in the 1990s before leaving home for college, careers, and lives of their own.

Terry's work with National Airlines drew the attention of a national law firm, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, that was building its presence in Miami. Always humble, Terry was initially surprised a firm of Morgan Lewis' caliber would want him, but he took the job, worked hard, and established himself as a trusted attorney and successful trial advocate. Terry eventually joined the firm's partnership and, as his practice and reputation grew, Terry was honored to serve as the Managing Partner of the Miami office from 1995-2002. After nearly 27 years with Morgan Lewis, in 2006, Terry joined the Miami office of the firm now known as Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP. At both firms, Terry helped to grow successful labor and employment practices but, while doing so, prioritized personal relationships with his clients, partners, junior attorneys, and staff. Grateful to his own mentors, Terry took enormous pride in mentoring young lawyers, helping dozens of attorneys advance within his law firms or helping them to find success through other paths in government service or as inside company counsel.

Outside of the office, Terry was much more than a great trial lawyer. He was an athlete and insatiable bicyclist, commuting daily from home to work and back on his bicycle, advocating for bike lanes and cyclist protections throughout the Greater Miami area. Even as cancer ravaged his body, Terry continued to pedal, finding strength, power and peace on long meditative rides. He rallied neighborhood families for legendary softball and kickball games. Regardless of age, he regularly schooled his kids and their friends in basketball.

Terry loved the arts and was a gifted writer. Having developed a love for theater while in high school, Terry supported and appreciated the fine arts throughout his life. His letters were beautiful (written long-hand or on antique typewriters), combining soaring imagery with succinct and delicate prose.

Terry loved his communities. During his long career, Terry helped numerous underprivileged clients in the Miami area protect their legal rights and, as he neared retirement, Terry helped disabled and distressed veterans obtain or protect their benefits and get services they needed. Terry mentored a young man from Liberty City for decades, counseling him through struggles with the criminal justice system and efforts to find his footing in the world.

He was passionate about education. Terry taught future lawyers at the University of Miami Law School. He traveled twice to Estonia to teach about U.S. legal practice and methods. Proud to have never been the top of his class, Terry emphasized diligence, creativity, and hard work over credentials. He always searched for diamonds in the rough - students and young lawyers who had been overlooked but in whom Terry found and nurtured potential.

Terry loved the natural world. With his family, Terry loved to explore the Shark Valley trail in the Everglades. Terry found peace and purpose with lawn tools in hand. After purchasing a vacation home in Cashiers, NC, nestled in the Western Appalachian mountains and near to where their children and grandchildren all spent summers at Eagle's Nest Camp, Terry and Julie loved their mountain community, too, listening to wind in the trees, the soft rhythms of rain on rhododendron thickets, and the musical sounds of katydids, cicadas, and tree frogs in the surrounding forest. It was in their Cashiers home this summer that Terry bravely and gallantly took his last stand, choosing to finish the fight against cancer on his own terms.

Terry was quick-witted and funny but tough and stern, friendly but stoic, smart but unassuming, talented but humble, irreverent but respectful of God's influence. These traits won Terry many friends and he held those friends close, treasuring bonds forged over time and hardship, always happy to retell old stories (especially the funny or embarrassing ones), counseling his children and grandchildren that true friends are both few and invaluable.

Above all, Terry was a family man. Despite long hours and frequent work travel, Terry saved time to be present for his wife, children and grandchildren, whether for school, jobs, sports, music, arts, epic road trips, or conversation, story-telling, and advice over a meal. He had wise words and cautionary tales for seemingly every situation. Nothing was more important or urgent than a child or grandchild who needed him. His family was stitched from the cultural fabric of the nation he loved, with grandchildren calling him Dadaji, Abuelo, and Papa. Terry loved his three brothers and their wives, Joseph and Ann, Gerald and Jeanne, and Kyran and Barbara, his many nieces and nephews, and his brother-in-law, Andrew Berry, joining them all to build joyous and loving foundations for all of their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren that continue to bind across four generations.

Terry loved Julie, his bride of nearly 53 years, and was enormously proud of the life, family, and legacy they built together. Theirs was a love story that began with flirtatious overtures from Terry's alter-ego, "Ace Fettaputecci," at a mixer for Air Force officers. Their love and partnership endured the highs and lows of a long legal career and raising four children, celebrated the blessings of eight grandchildren and mourned the loss of one, persevered through sickness and health, and provided a shining example for all who knew them.

In his own poetic words, facing the end, Terry asked us to remember him in this way: "If you should write for me an epitaph, keep it short and spare: He saw things after differently. He took a chance or two. He learned to love a woman, later than he should. He loved his family deeply, though April broke his heart, the rest will overcome. Loved his country always. Fairly challenged power and tried to make it better. Cared for those he mentored and fiercely pled his causes. We're born, we live, we love, we pass. Please simply say: He tried."

You did so much more than try, Terry, Dad, Dadaji, Abuelo and Papa. We will love, honor, and miss you always.

A memorial service for Terry will be held at 11:00 a.m. on November 15, 2024 at the historic Plymouth Congregational Church, located at 3400 Devon Road, Coconut Grove FL 33133 (www.https://plymouthmiami.org). All are welcome. In lieu of gifts or flowers, please consider donations to any or all of the following:

The Miami Underline: www.theunderline.org/donate-to-the-underline.

The Everglades Foundation: www.evergladesfoundation.org/giving.

Miami Book Fair: foundation.mdc.edu/g/miami-book-fair-next-decade-fund.