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In Memoriam

Jesuit Father Kevin G. O’Connell died peacefully on January 21, 2016, at Campion Center in Weston, Massachusetts, at age 77. Fr. O’Connell was born on May 22, 1938, in Boston and entered the Society of Jesus on August 14, 1956, at the Novitiate of St. Andrew-on-Hudson in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Fr. O’Connell served as the ninth president of Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, from 1987 to 1993. Prior to coming to Le Moyne, he taught at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology, and also taught and chaired the Religious Studies Department at John Carroll University in Cleveland.

“Father O’Connell was diligent and energized to make Le Moyne a better place,” said Mike Curtin ’62, who was on the College’s Board of Trustees during O’Connell’s tenure and later served as Board Chair. “He never forgot that Le Moyne was a Jesuit institution and brought his considerable talents to improving the College for the betterment of its students and all constituencies.”

After leaving the college, Fr. O’Connell was involved in a number of Jesuit-related activities in the U.S. and abroad, including working for more than 15 years as an administrator and pastor at the Jesuit Center in Amman, Jordan.

Fr. O’Connell entered the Society of Jesus in 1956 and was ordained in 1969. He received a bachelor’s in arts, classics and philosophy from Boston College in 1962; a master’s in philosophy from Weston College-Boston College in 1963; a doctorate in philosophy, Near Eastern languages and Old Testament from Harvard University in 1968; and a Master of Divinity degree from the Weston College School of Theology in 1969.