After years of gathering for fun and fellowship, members of the Saint Michael's College class of 1971 decided last year to create a scholarship to honor one of the their most loved and admired classmates. Thus they established the James J. O'Connor Scholarship, in honor of Jim, who has cerebral palsy, and went on to a career as a vocational rehabilitation counselor in the Department of Social Services for the State of New York, where he works with and for others with disabilities.
Jim O'Connor and his wife Christine, of Schenectady, N.Y., were present with their children Corinne and David, Saturday, Jan. 31, at the Saint Michael's basketball game in the Ross Sports Center. O'Connor Scholarship recipient, Randy Forant, a first-year business administration major, was present to meet members of the Saint Michael's Class of 1971, along, with his parents Juanita and Randy Forant of Morrisville, Vt.
According to 1971 grad Peter Hooper, who is also a member of the Saint Michael's College Board of Trustees, the gathering included some 20 classmates, as well as spouses and close friends, bringing the total to about 40 celebrants of both Forant and O'Connor.
"We wanted to honor one of our most loved and admired classmates, Jim O'Connor," Hooper said. The class of 1971 was joined in creation of the scholarship by the classes of 2004 and 2006, as they are the years of graduation from Saint Michael's of Jim O'Connor's children Corinne O'Connor and David O'Connor, respectively.
Saint Michael's College, founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, is identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nation's Best 368 Colleges. A liberal arts, residential, Catholic college, Saint Michael's is located just outside of Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top college towns and less than two hours from Montreal. As one of only 270 institutions nationwide with a prestigious Phi Beta Kappa chapter on campus, Saint Michael's has 2,000 full-time undergraduate students, some 500 graduate students and 200 international students. In recent years Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Guggenheim, Fulbright, National Science Foundation and other grants, and Saint Michael's professors have been named Vermont Professor of the Year in four of the last eight years. The college is currently listed as one of the nation's Best Liberal Arts Colleges in the 2009 U.S. News & World Report rankings.
Photo caption: Randy Forant '10, left, recipient of the James O'Connor Scholarship, and Jim O'Connor, right, for whom the scholarship is named. Behind Randy, left to righ, his dad, Randy, his brother, Jesse, and his mother, Juanita. In front of Randy, his support dog, Dee Dee. Standing behind Jim is his wife Chris.