On the second-to-last day of 2018, Rice University lost one of its best, kindest, and most modest friends: the great Ralph O'Connor. He was 92.
At Rice, Ralph was the benefactor of Martel College, the old president's house (called O'Connor House before its renovation and conversion to office use in 2004), the George R. Brown Tennis Center (Brown was Ralph's father-in-law, and Ralph credited him with instilling his lifelong love of tennis), the owl sculpture behind the Rice Memorial Chapel, an endowed faculty chair in Economics, Martel College, and many other things large and small, often made quietly and with little attribution.
Ralph was a proud Johns Hopkins alumnus, where he funded the O'Connor Recreation Center, a scholarship fund for undergraduates, a professorship in Biology, and an endowed chair in Ophthalmology.
Ralph served as a trustee of both Rice (two terms) and Johns Hopkins (one term), and has received each university's highest medal (the Gold Medal and the University President's Medal, respectively) for service.
I had the great privilege of knowing Ralph not only through Rice but also through lacrosse. He is the acknowledged founding father of lacrosse in Texas: he brought the 1971 Johns Hopkins v. Navy men's game to the Astrodome (setting a lacrosse attendance record that stood for well over a decade) and the 2015 Johns Hopkins v. Marquette women's game to UH, and he supported the sport (including the Rice men's and women's teams) as it grew in our area. The Rice lacrosse field is named O'Connor Field in his honor.
A brief notice has been published here:
https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituari...or-8103888
...and a more detailed obituary will follow this Sunday.
More information about Ralph from Johns Hopkins:
https://studentaffairs.jhu.edu/recreatio...s-oconnor/
And from Rice:
http://news.rice.edu/2015/11/23/rice-tru...economics/
UPDATE #1:
Rice historian Melissa Kean has published a splendid tribute in her blog:
https://ricehistorycorner.com/2019/01/02...1926-2018/
UPDATE #2:
Official tributes from Rice and Johns Hopkins:
Rice trustee emeritus Ralph O'Connor dies at 92
https://news.rice.edu/2019/01/03/rice-tr...ies-at-92/
Entrepreneur and philanthropist Ralph O'Connor, a 'quintessential Blue Jay,' dies at 92
https://hub.jhu.edu/2019/01/03/ralph-oconnor-obit/
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My heart goes out to Ralph's widow Becky and to all the O'Connor family. May he rest in peace.