John O'Connor

1937 - 2016

John T. ""Jack"" O'Connor, born in New York City in 1937, died on February 17, 2016, eleven months after he was diagnosed with leukemia. The son of John J. O'Connor and Mary E. O'Connor, he is survived by his brother, Dennis L. O'Connor, his sister, Teresa A. O'Connor, his ex wife, Dolores J. Walker and their daughter, Rosalie O'Connor.

John earned his PhD at the University of Minnesota in 1965. He was an Assistant Professor in the History Department of the University of Wisconsin before joining the History Department at the University of New Orleans in 1973. He taught courses in the French Revolution and Napoleon, Seventeenth-Century France, and The Age of Louis XIV, among others, at the young and thriving department of the time. In 1984, he received the UNO Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching.

The main focus of his research was international relations in Europe during the Ancien Régime. A Fulbright fellowship in Paris for two years, summer and other research grants enabled him to work in European archives, including the Foreign Affairs archives at the Quai d'Orsay, the war archives at Vincennes, the Vatican Archives, the Royal Spanish archives in Simancas and many others. An early result of his research was his book, Negotiator Out of Season: The Career of Wilhelm Egon von Fürstenberg 1629-1704, published in 1982 by the University of Georgia Press. Articles and book reviews followed in scholarly journals in Europe as well as in the U.S. and Canada. His later research interests focused on treason in the early modern era, especially in France and Spain, and on utopian projects for peace in the 17th century. His command of French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Italian was essential to the work he undertook throughout his career. Always open to exploring new perspectives, he travelled to Haiti in 2000. His experiences and contacts there led to articles and lectures on the Haitian revolutions of the 1790s and the achievement of independence from France in 1803.

His favorite non-academic reading consisted of detective novels and cookbooks. Several friends received frequent messages from him featuring recipes. John was initially indifferent to ballet, but his daughter's career, first as a dancer at American Ballet Theatre and later as a dance photographer, turned him into a dedicated and knowledgeable lover of the art. Some of his happiest days were spent attending ballet performances in New York City and elsewhere. One of his most treasured experiences was seeing his daughter perform with A.B.T at the Palais Garnier in Paris in 1991.

He will be deeply missed by his family, friends and colleagues in the U.S. and abroad.

No Memorial Service is planned for John.