Daniel P O'Connor

1921 - 2015

Daniel O'Connor, Executive Producer of award winning NBC News documentaries from the 1950's to 1980's, died near his home in Roxbury, CT. He was 93.

The cause was heart failure.

As Producer, Executive Producer, and Managing Director of Special News Programs and Documentaries Mr. O'Connor supervised nearly 600 productions throughout his 26 years at NBC. Many were award winning, multi-part and long-form specials with innovative visual formats, tackling major issues and cultural touchstones of the era. Some of these include Violence in America, Reading Writing Reefers, The Energy Crisis, NBC News White paper: The Migrants and its follow-up, The Migrants 1980, and Medicine In America: Life, Death And Dollars. Collaborators on these documentaries included Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, Budd Schulberg, Edwin Newman, Jane Pauley, Judy Woodruff, and Tom Brokaw.

Daniel P. O'Connor was born in Omaha, Nebraska on November 9, 1921, the son of Daniel A. O'Connor, who emigrated from Ireland and Rose Slaven, also from Ireland.

Mr. O'Connor attended Creighton University, and received a Master's degree from Catholic University.

He served as a 1st Lt. and later Captain in the US Army Infantry, and participated in the 2nd wave of the Normandy Invasion as well as in numerous other campaigns in France and Germany during the Second World War. After the war, he established and ran a school in Germany for US soldiers to work towards their degrees while awaiting their return to the United States.

Shortly after the war, he married Lenka Isacson. (A professional actress under the stage name Lenka Peterson, who later appeared on film, television and Broadway.)

Dan taught theater, directing, and drama theory at Creighton University and at St. Louis University where he managed the University's commercial radio station.

In the early fifties, in New York, Dan worked at NBC Television as Stage Manager and Associate Director, working on live dramatic, comedy and musical programs including Producers' Showcase, Kraft TV Theater, Playwrights '56, Sid Caesar's Hour, and many others, including Peter Pan with Mary Martin and Cyril Richard.

Mr. O'Connor retired in 1983. He collaborated with his wife Lenka on the book Kids Take the Stage. They built a house in Roxbury, CT, in which they lived throughout Dan's retirement.

He suffered from Alzheimer's during his last 10 years. Despite the burden of this disease, he retained his essential humor, his gentle nature and his continuous delight with those around him. He was deeply loved and will be missed terribly.

He is predeceased by his brother, Colonel Tom O'Connor and sister Catherine O'Connor. He is survived by his wife, Lenka O'Connor, their children Kevin, Brian, Darren, Glynnis and Sean, and by their daughters-in-law Eileen O'Connor and Jolene O'Connor, sons-in-law Douglas Stern and Josh Yu, and their grandchildren, Daniel Sven O'Connor, Lindsay Stern, Hana Stern, and Jadie O'Connor, as well as their step-grandchildren, Tanya Goff, Tasha Manternach, and Niko O'Connor, and step great grandchildren, Echo, Aleia and Nolan Goff, Aidan, Kyle, Una and Zack Manternach, and great grandchild Joseph Daniel O'Connor.