John E. O’Connor, 94, longtime Defense Dept. quality inspector
March 3, 1915—June 23, 2009
John E. “Jack” O’Connor, a quality assurance representative for the Defense Department for 42 years, died Tuesday in his stepdaughter’s home in East Arcade. He was 94.
Mr. O’Connor was responsible for inspecting and accepting items such as 20-man lifeboats for aircraft, deployment bags for parachutes in F-4 Phantom and F-101 Voodoo fighter jets and the medical instruments used aboard military craft.
Honoring him with an award in 1980, his supervisor said, “Mr. O’Connor’s can-do attitude with both the contractors he services and the buying activities has established good will and a positive government image.” He retired in 1985.
Born in Buffalo, he was a member of the second graduating class at Grover Cleveland High School. He served in the Army Air Forces in North Africa during World War II and the Air Force stateside in the Korean War. Returning from service, he graduated from the University of Buffalo’s Millard Fillmore College.
For many years, Mr. O’Connor visited sick children in the hospital, bringing them lollipops and comic books on behalf of the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Holy Angels Catholic Church. Later a resident of the Parkside area, he was a lector at St. Mark’s Church.
He also volunteered on a nearly daily basis in the library of Hillery Park Academy. And he volunteered for the annual Word Olympics and the Java Lake Road Race.
He was a past president of the Kensington Lions Club.
His first wife, Josephine D’Amico O’Connor, died in 1971. After he married Marialyce Lanagan in 1981, he moved to South Buffalo. She died in 1993.
Survivors include a son, Michael; a stepdaughter, Kathleen Kreis; a brother, Edward; and a sister, Elizabeth Peterson.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered at 9:30 a. m. Friday in St. Bernard Catholic Church, 1990 Clinton St.
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