Father Norman O'Connor, CSP, was born in Detroit, Michigan, on November 27, 1921, the middle child of two older sisters and two younger brothers. He was the nephew of Paulist Father Norman James O'Connor, who died in 1927, only nine years after ordination. Norm attended the diocesan seminary of Sacred Heart in Detroit for four years of high school and two years of college before applying to join the Paulist community. After completing the novitiate in 1942 and the program of studies at St. Paul's College, he was ordained May 1, 1948, with classmates Fathers Charlie White, Joe Hayes, and Bud Powers.
Upon ordination, Father O'Connor was appointed assistant editor of "Information Magazine" with residence in the Paulist community at Saint Paul the Apostle Church in New York City. In 1951 he was assigned to the Newman apostolate at Boston University. To quote the Boston Globe: "But in his free time, the Paulist priest turned to the region's airwaves and stages to spread the joys of his second love, jazz. Father O'Connor has devoted a good part of his priestly career to what is possibly the most offbeat apostolate in his order's history—bringing religion to what someone has called ‘the underworld of jazz.' He had jazz radio shows on WGBH and WBUR that were fed to a New England regional network and a TV show, ‘Father O'Connor's Jazz,' on WGBH. He also wrote a weekly jazz column for "The Boston Sunday Globe." Nationally, he contributed articles to the leading magazine of jazz music, "Downbeat," and to "Metronome." In 1954, he was named to the board of the first Newport Jazz Festival. For many years, he was the public face of the annual event, serving as the master of ceremonies for concerts and the moderator of panel discussions."
In 1962, Father O'Connor was named director of radio and television for the Paulist Fathers in New York. "He maintained his jazz ties, however, staying involved in the Newport festival and hosting a New York television show called ‘Dial M for Music' along with a syndicated radio show." "He kept in close contact with the giants of jazz, including Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and Dave Brubeck. He celebrated Holiday's funeral Mass and was the principal eulogist at the 1974 funeral of Ellington in the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York."
Father Norman served as procurator at the Paulist Novitiate in Oak Ridge, New Jersey, from 1966 to 1982. He also began an association with the Paterson Diocese in 1973 when he was invited to head an umbrella organization called SHARE that oversaw the planning and financing of nine diocesan charitable and social service agencies. As executive director, he built "Straight and Narrow" into the largest agency in New Jersey serving people suffering with addictions to alcohol or illegal drugs. During his tenure, the budget for services increased from $l million to $15.5 million, funding a range of services from drug and alcohol treatment to family and children's education, medical day care for adults with AIDS and welfare-to-work programs. By 2001 when he retired, "Straight and Narrow" was operating 28 programs and had served more than 50,000 "of the neediest people."
On June 29, 2003, not long after his retirement, Father Norman suffered a fatal heart attack in Wayne, New Jersey, at the age of 81, having served for 55 years as a Paulist priest.
Upon ordination, Father O'Connor was appointed assistant editor of "Information Magazine" with residence in the Paulist community at Saint Paul the Apostle Church in New York City. In 1951 he was assigned to the Newman apostolate at Boston University. To quote the Boston Globe: "But in his free time, the Paulist priest turned to the region's airwaves and stages to spread the joys of his second love, jazz. Father O'Connor has devoted a good part of his priestly career to what is possibly the most offbeat apostolate in his order's history—bringing religion to what someone has called ‘the underworld of jazz.' He had jazz radio shows on WGBH and WBUR that were fed to a New England regional network and a TV show, ‘Father O'Connor's Jazz,' on WGBH. He also wrote a weekly jazz column for "The Boston Sunday Globe." Nationally, he contributed articles to the leading magazine of jazz music, "Downbeat," and to "Metronome." In 1954, he was named to the board of the first Newport Jazz Festival. For many years, he was the public face of the annual event, serving as the master of ceremonies for concerts and the moderator of panel discussions."
In 1962, Father O'Connor was named director of radio and television for the Paulist Fathers in New York. "He maintained his jazz ties, however, staying involved in the Newport festival and hosting a New York television show called ‘Dial M for Music' along with a syndicated radio show." "He kept in close contact with the giants of jazz, including Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and Dave Brubeck. He celebrated Holiday's funeral Mass and was the principal eulogist at the 1974 funeral of Ellington in the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York."
Father Norman served as procurator at the Paulist Novitiate in Oak Ridge, New Jersey, from 1966 to 1982. He also began an association with the Paterson Diocese in 1973 when he was invited to head an umbrella organization called SHARE that oversaw the planning and financing of nine diocesan charitable and social service agencies. As executive director, he built "Straight and Narrow" into the largest agency in New Jersey serving people suffering with addictions to alcohol or illegal drugs. During his tenure, the budget for services increased from $l million to $15.5 million, funding a range of services from drug and alcohol treatment to family and children's education, medical day care for adults with AIDS and welfare-to-work programs. By 2001 when he retired, "Straight and Narrow" was operating 28 programs and had served more than 50,000 "of the neediest people."
On June 29, 2003, not long after his retirement, Father Norman suffered a fatal heart attack in Wayne, New Jersey, at the age of 81, having served for 55 years as a Paulist priest.
Father Norman O'Connor, CSP, was born in Detroit, Michigan, on November 27, 1921, the middle child of two older sisters and two younger brothers. He was the nephew of Paulist Father Norman James O'Connor, who died in 1927, only nine years after ordination. Norm attended the diocesan seminary of Sacred Heart in Detroit for four years of high school and two years of college before applying to join the Paulist community. After completing the novitiate in 1942 and the program of studies at St. Paul's College, he was ordained May 1, 1948, with classmates Fathers Charlie White, Joe Hayes, and Bud Powers.
Upon ordination, Father O'Connor was appointed assistant editor of "Information Magazine" with residence in the Paulist community at Saint Paul the Apostle Church in New York City. In 1951 he was assigned to the Newman apostolate at Boston University. To quote the Boston Globe: "But in his free time, the Paulist priest turned to the region's airwaves and stages to spread the joys of his second love, jazz. Father O'Connor has devoted a good part of his priestly career to what is possibly the most offbeat apostolate in his order's history—bringing religion to what someone has called ‘the underworld of jazz.' He had jazz radio shows on WGBH and WBUR that were fed to a New England regional network and a TV show, ‘Father O'Connor's Jazz,' on WGBH. He also wrote a weekly jazz column for "The Boston Sunday Globe." Nationally, he contributed articles to the leading magazine of jazz music, "Downbeat," and to "Metronome." In 1954, he was named to the board of the first Newport Jazz Festival. For many years, he was the public face of the annual event, serving as the master of ceremonies for concerts and the moderator of panel discussions."
In 1962, Father O'Connor was named director of radio and television for the Paulist Fathers in New York. "He maintained his jazz ties, however, staying involved in the Newport festival and hosting a New York television show called ‘Dial M for Music' along with a syndicated radio show." "He kept in close contact with the giants of jazz, including Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and Dave Brubeck. He celebrated Holiday's funeral Mass and was the principal eulogist at the 1974 funeral of Ellington in the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York."
Father Norman served as procurator at the Paulist Novitiate in Oak Ridge, New Jersey, from 1966 to 1982. He also began an association with the Paterson Diocese in 1973 when he was invited to head an umbrella organization called SHARE that oversaw the planning and financing of nine diocesan charitable and social service agencies. As executive director, he built "Straight and Narrow" into the largest agency in New Jersey serving people suffering with addictions to alcohol or illegal drugs. During his tenure, the budget for services increased from $l million to $15.5 million, funding a range of services from drug and alcohol treatment to family and children's education, medical day care for adults with AIDS and welfare-to-work programs. By 2001 when he retired, "Straight and Narrow" was operating 28 programs and had served more than 50,000 "of the neediest people."
On June 29, 2003, not long after his retirement, Father Norman suffered a fatal heart attack in Wayne, New Jersey, at the age of 81, having served for 55 years as a Paulist priest.
Upon ordination, Father O'Connor was appointed assistant editor of "Information Magazine" with residence in the Paulist community at Saint Paul the Apostle Church in New York City. In 1951 he was assigned to the Newman apostolate at Boston University. To quote the Boston Globe: "But in his free time, the Paulist priest turned to the region's airwaves and stages to spread the joys of his second love, jazz. Father O'Connor has devoted a good part of his priestly career to what is possibly the most offbeat apostolate in his order's history—bringing religion to what someone has called ‘the underworld of jazz.' He had jazz radio shows on WGBH and WBUR that were fed to a New England regional network and a TV show, ‘Father O'Connor's Jazz,' on WGBH. He also wrote a weekly jazz column for "The Boston Sunday Globe." Nationally, he contributed articles to the leading magazine of jazz music, "Downbeat," and to "Metronome." In 1954, he was named to the board of the first Newport Jazz Festival. For many years, he was the public face of the annual event, serving as the master of ceremonies for concerts and the moderator of panel discussions."
In 1962, Father O'Connor was named director of radio and television for the Paulist Fathers in New York. "He maintained his jazz ties, however, staying involved in the Newport festival and hosting a New York television show called ‘Dial M for Music' along with a syndicated radio show." "He kept in close contact with the giants of jazz, including Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and Dave Brubeck. He celebrated Holiday's funeral Mass and was the principal eulogist at the 1974 funeral of Ellington in the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York."
Father Norman served as procurator at the Paulist Novitiate in Oak Ridge, New Jersey, from 1966 to 1982. He also began an association with the Paterson Diocese in 1973 when he was invited to head an umbrella organization called SHARE that oversaw the planning and financing of nine diocesan charitable and social service agencies. As executive director, he built "Straight and Narrow" into the largest agency in New Jersey serving people suffering with addictions to alcohol or illegal drugs. During his tenure, the budget for services increased from $l million to $15.5 million, funding a range of services from drug and alcohol treatment to family and children's education, medical day care for adults with AIDS and welfare-to-work programs. By 2001 when he retired, "Straight and Narrow" was operating 28 programs and had served more than 50,000 "of the neediest people."
On June 29, 2003, not long after his retirement, Father Norman suffered a fatal heart attack in Wayne, New Jersey, at the age of 81, having served for 55 years as a Paulist priest.
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