(This story by Bob Audette first appeared in the Brattleboro Reformer.)
By all accounts, Timothy J. O’Connor Jr. was kind, fair, amicable, no-nonsense, intelligent and witty.
The list of adjectives does not end there, but suffice it to say, Brattleboro, Windham County and Vermont are all the better because of O’Connor, who died Tuesday afternoon at the age of 81 at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H.
Perhaps the most succinct description came from O’Connor himself in a 2010 interview with the Reformer, describing his three-term tenure as speaker of the House in Montpelier. “It was a job where you were like the traffic cop at the downtown Main Street circle, trying to get five lanes of cars to move and go with some order, trying to get people to basically compromise on certain positions in order to get legislation passed.”
That interview was conducted after the House of Representatives presented a resolution honoring O’Connor. “It is a way to honor Tim’s work in the past and to thank him for his continued work in our community, where he is valued for his expertise, sharp wit and humor,” said former legislator Sarah Edwards at the time the resolution was sponsored.
‘A role model and a mentor’
O’Connor, who was born in Brattleboro on Dec. 13, 1936, served as a Democrat in the Vermont House of Representatives from 1969 to 1981. He was chairman of the House Judiciary Committee from 1973 to 1975 and served as speaker of the House from 1975 to 1981. In 1980, he launched an unsuccessful bid for the governor’s office.
Before his career as a politician, O’Connor graduated from St. Michael High School in Brattleboro in 1954 and then the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. After he graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., in 1961, he attended President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration. He married Martha Elizabeth Hannum of Putney on July 8, 1961, and in 2017 they celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary.
He began his legal career in the law offices of Edward A. John, at the age of 25. O’Connor practiced law until his 2011 retirement, though he served as Town Meeting moderator through 2012.
“He’s been a role model and mentor for all of us, and the profession is going to be less for his leaving,” Theodore Kramer, of Kramer Law Offices in Brattleboro, told the Reformer in 2011. “Timmy really is one of a kind. He’s an exceptional attorney and just a spectacular, quality guy, very reliable and professional.”
“Tim was like a father to me and very much like my own father,” Brattleboro attorney Jeffrey G. Morse told the Reformer on Wednesday. Morse learned from O’Connor when starting his own law career. “We have lost a truly great man.”
Impeccable loyalty and integrity
“We need more Timmy O’Connors today more than ever,” said Peter Shumlin, who served as governor of Vermont for three terms. “He couldn’t care less who you were, what the color of your skin was, your religious beliefs or your sexual orientation. All he cared about was the quality of your character. And you could trust him to stand behind you once you became friends.”
Shumlin noted that when O’Connor was elected speaker of the House, the Legislature was dominated by Republicans. If that wasn’t remarkable enough, O’Connor served three terms as speaker. “What made Timmy such an unshakable friend and fine servant to Vermont was that everybody knew his loyalty and integrity were impeccable,” said Shumlin. “Because of that, Republicans, Democrats, independents and everybody else trusted him with their own future.”
“Tim pulled off an impossible upset getting elected speaker in a minority House,” former legislator Michael Obuchowski told the Reformer in 2010. “He had the ability to convince people, and how he convinced them was with his Irish kindness and fairness.”
“In his years leading the Vermont House, his unrivaled ability to build consensus and find common ground earned him genuine respect and support from all sides of the aisle,” current Speaker of the Vermont House Mitzi Johnson said in an email to the media.
“Just getting elected speaker is an amazing feat, but to be elected by both parties, as a member of the minority party, and for more than one session, is unheard of,” said Mike Mrowicki, who represents Putney, Dummerston and Westminster in the Vermont House. “He was an amazing public servant and a coalition builder.”
But, noted Mrowicki, O’Connor’s interest in people went beyond consensus building. “Tim was always eager to hear how you were doing and wanted to know if he could help in any way.”
A listener, not a talker
U.S. Rep. Peter Welch told the Reformer that O’Connor and John Carnahan were the first two people he met when he moved to Vermont in 1974 to pursue a legal career. Being elected the speaker of the House while a member of the minority party was a result of O’Connor’s personality, his decency and his civility, said Welch. “He embodied an ethic in Vermont that you work together with people of opposing parties to get things done.”
Welch said during his career in politics he has tried to emulate O’Connor and Bob Gannett, who represented Brattleboro and Windham County in the Vermont Legislature for more than 25 years.
“They inspired me to focus on the issues, find common ground, not to get personal and be open and generous with your colleagues,” said Welch. “It was effortless with Tim. He is truly one of the giants of Vermont politics.”
What also made him unique among politicians, said Welch, was that O’Connor was a listener and not a talker. “Unless you got him on the topic of Ireland, and then you couldn’t get him to shut up.”
“Tim had such a great sense of humor, especially when it involved the Irish,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy. “I will miss him but I’ll look, every day, at the walking stick he brought me from Ireland.”
A proud Irishman
O’Connor was a member of what Fran Lynggaard Hansen described in her book, “Brattleboro: Historically Speaking,” as the Irish on Elliot Street.
According to Hansen’s retelling, O’Connor’s grandparents, Timothy Patrick O’Connor and his wife, Hannah Daly O’Connor, came independently from County Kerry in Ireland. They met in Norwich, Conn., later moving to Bellows Falls where relatives found them jobs in a local paper mill. Eventually, the couple moved to Putney, where they raised two boys and two girls. Later, the family moved to Brattleboro.
O’Connor’s grandfather died in an industrial accident in 1915, according to the story he told to Hansen, and his grandmother later died of tuberculosis. “Richard and Hanna Hasey took my father in and raised him as their own since he was the youngest and they didn’t want him to go to an orphanage,” O’Connor told Hansen. The senior Timothy O’Connor went to the Bentley School of accounting and finance in Massachusetts and worked for Barrows Coal Company for 48 years, according to “Brattleboro: Historically Speaking.”
“Tim was a wealth of knowledge about our town and its characters past and present,” wrote Hansen on the Reformer’s Facebook page. “More than that, he was a gentle soul; a kind man who quietly helped so many people. The weight of his life will be felt in Brattleboro for a very long time.”
A man in service to his community
“Tim O’Connor understood, and in many ways embodied, what it meant to serve his community and his state,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders. “Moreover, in this era of increasing political divisiveness, Tim serves as a model for bringing people together.”
As Town Meeting moderator for Brattleboro for more than two decades, O’Connor developed a reputation for his enthusiastic use of his gavel to rein in the meanderings of Town Meeting representatives. That frustrated some people, but always brought a chuckle to many more.
“There were many memorable town meetings that Tim moderated,” wrote Fred Noyes, who recorded a number of representative town meetings for BCTV. “I would sometimes say that he was the grandpa of our town.”
“I’ve seen my share of town meeting moderators over the years, in Brattleboro and beyond,” wrote Mary H. White, of Brattleboro. “Tim was the best, by far.”
“Tim O’Connor was a kind, caring, funny, wise, and generous person who gave decades of tireless public service to Brattleboro and all of Vermont,” said Brattleboro Town Manager Peter Elwell. “We will miss him terribly, but will always be grateful for who he was and how he lived.”
Sen. Becca Balint, the current president of the Vermont Senate, said O’Connor was very supportive of her in pursuing a career in politics.
“I greatly respected his advice and perspective on working in the Legislature, and I’m so grateful that he saw and nurtured my leadership qualities,” Balint said. “Tim O’Connor is known in the Statehouse as a man who cherished and modeled civility and collegiality. He brought his heart to his work, and in doing so he positively impacted so many legislators and constituents.”
“Speaker O’Connor had the reputation of a true public servant — a reputation he earned through his unique ability to achieve consensus and compromise,” said Gov. Phil Scott. “His years of leadership have made a lasting mark, and his positive impact on Vermont will not soon be forgotten.”
‘Forever loyal’
Shumlin said when he volunteered to work for Tom Salmon’s campaign for governor in the early 1970s, “Timmy took me under his wing, he tutored me, taught me, cared for me and kept me out of trouble. I was forever loyal to him after that.”
If more politicians were like O’Connor, said Shumlin, “We wouldn’t be in the mess we are in now.”
During a recent visit to O’Connor, Shumlin said his mentor was incredulous over the adversarial atmosphere in Washington, D.C.
“He said, ‘I never thought I would live to see the day when division and name-calling would come from the president of the United States of America. It’s just so discouraging.'”
Such a comment from O’Connor was very rare, said Shumlin. “Tim was a person who very rarely spoke ill of anybody. He had a heart of gold and would fight for folks without a voice. That, combined with his impeccable integrity, made him one of the great leaders of our time.”
Former Gov. Jim Douglas, who preceded Shumlin in that office, agreed.
“At a time when rancor has permeated our political process and collegiality seems to have disappeared from the public square, Tim O’Connor stands as a glorious example of what a public servant should be,” said Douglas. “We need more like him today.”
Douglas, a Republican who served as House majority leader, also recalled his time working with O’Connor, who he described as “a tremendous leader.”
Like others who served with O’Connor, Douglas said he was fair and impartial and that he cared about each legislator, regardless of party affiliation, and displayed a genuine nonpartisanship that earned the respect of all of his colleagues.
“I had the temerity to challenge his re-election as speaker in 1979,” said Douglas, who would later serve three terms as Vermont’s governor. “He defeated me handily, but there were no hard feelings: he promptly reappointed me to chair a committee.”
James Valente, of Costello, Valente & Gentry in Brattleboro, said everyone should try “to be a little more like Tim in our daily lives. He could teach without lecturing, argue without fighting, and make you laugh without teasing.”
A funeral Mass is scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m. at St. Michael Catholic Church in Brattleboro, with arrangements organized by Atamaniuk Funeral Home.
The family requests no flowers. Contributions may be made to the St. Brigid’s Kitchen renovation fund in care of St. Michael Catholic Church, 47 Walnut St., Brattleboro, VT 05301.
Survivors include his wife; a son, Kevin O’Connor of Brattleboro; two daughters, Kate O’Connor of Brattleboro and Kerry (Robert) Amidon of Vernon; three grandchildren, Daniel, David and Jacob Amidon of Vernon; and a brother, W. Brian O’Connor of Amherst, Mass.
