ohn
O'Connor, an environmental activist, developer, and former candidate for
Congress, died yesterday in Cambridge Hospital after apparently suffering
a heart attack while playing basketball in the Cambridge YMCA. He was 46.
The chairman of Gravestar Inc., Mr. O'Connor was the founder of
Greenworks, a company that helps ''incubate'' environmental start-up
companies.
''John was a great man, and the world is a better place because of his
compassion, great love, and unyielding drive to help other people,'' said
his wife, Carolyn Mugar O'Connor.
Described as a tough competitor but warm and generous with a zeal for
life, Mr. O'Connor had a motto he kept over his desk: ''The fun is in the
fight.''
That summarized his philosophy, say those who knew him.
Jim Braude, a former Cambridge city councilor and manager of his
campaign for Massachusetts' 8th Congressional District, said Mr.
O'Connor's legacy of activism and environmental consciousness will benefit
others for decades to come.
''Every single person John worked with - from the president of Ireland
to the kids he helped on the streets and in the schools back home - knew
that his passion was to leave the world a better place than he found it,''
Braude said. ''In that he clearly succeeded.''
In 1998, during a speech kicking off his run for Congress, Mr. O'Connor
told the audience that growing up in Stratford, Conn., sparked his
environmental consciousness.
The city is home to Raybestos, one of the largest asbestos
manufacturers in the nation, a key employer in town and the sponsor of his
Little League team, the Raybestos Cardinals. But during his sophomore year
at Clark University in Worcester, Mr. O'Connor learned that Raybestos had
built the team's baseball diamond atop a dump it once used for toxic
chemicals, which some suspected in the cancer death of a teammate.
After graduating from Clark University, Mr. O'Connor joined Volunteers
In Service to America, a government-funded organization dedicated to
ending rural and urban poverty; he helped organize a low-income Worcester
neighborhood.
During the next three decades, Mr. O'Connor's activism continued: He
helped organize labor unions in the 1970s, founded the National Toxics
Campaign in 1983, a grass-roots movement which lobbied for passage of the
Superfund Cleanup Law, and fought against deregulation of Bay State
utilities in the 1990s.
Mr. O'Connor acquired a net worth estimated as high as $25 million when
he married Carolyn Mugar, heir to the Star Market fortune. But he used the
money to further what some described as urban populist activism.
In 1991, he founded Greenworks to give financial backing to fledgling
environmental businesses. And Gravestar funded a $13 million,
environmentally friendly overhaul of Porter Square.
A trustee of Clark University, Mr. O'Connor also was a director of the
Irish Famine Memorial Committee. He also authored two books on the
environment, ''Getting the Lead Out'' and ''Who Owns the Sun?'', and was
working on a book on food policy.
In addition to his wife, he leaves a stepdaughter, Chloe of Cambridge;
two brothers, Jeff of San Diego and James of Saugus; a sister, Emily, of
Washington, D.C.; and his parents, Kay and George O'Connor of
Stratford.
Funeral arrangements are incomplete.
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