Dr. Patrick J. O'Connor Phd,

Patrick John ("PJ") O'Connor, 84, a dynamic high-school English teacher and retired professor of Education at Worcester State University, died on Friday, January 20, after a brief illness.

Patrick O'Connor was born the son of Eleanor and Patrick O'Connor and was raised in Worcester. He graduated from North High School and earned a Bachelor's Degree in Philosophy from Assumption College and a Master's Degree in English from Niagara University. He served in the Marine Corps Reserve in Parris Island, South Carolina and later acquired an EdD in Educational Psychology from UMass Amherst in 1977 and completed a Post-Doctoral Study at Harvard University in 1992.

He taught high school English for forty years in the Worcester public school system, mostly at South High School, and then went on to become an assistant professor in the Department of Education at Worcester State College where he taught until he retired.

Dr. O'Connor was a powerful and impassioned teacher who left his mark on generations of students. Whatever classroom he taught in - high-school or college - his presence was electric. He would burst into song, leap onto a desk, and belt out lines of poetry from Shakespeare to Chaucer. He loved Dickens, and later in life developed a love for the work of James Joyce after a sabbatical he took in Ireland. He was as kind as he was witty, as disciplined as he was spontaneous. He published widely in his field, and was a member of numerous professional associations, including the Massachusetts Teachers Association. He was awarded Educator of the Year in 1995 by Phi Delta Kappa. An avid runner, he completed twenty Boston marathons.

His interests were many - traveling, Irish culture, a lover of the Red Sox, the Patriots and the Celtics - but his most ardent and steadfast passion was education. He read voluminously on the subject, all the while underlining sentences and scribbling notes in the margins of the hundreds of books he owned. With his permed hair, booming voice, and endless passion for life and knowledge, he was a Falstaffian figure whose loss is dear to everybody that knew and loved him.

He leaves his wife Marilyn ("Fabiola") Antkowiak of thirty-three years, his sister, Eileen P. O'Connor of Fitchburg and her partner Cheryl Martunas, and many nieces, nephews as well as friends across the world. His brother Gerald P. O'Connor predeceased him.

The Shaw-Majercik Funeral Home, 48 School St., Webster, MA has been entrusted with his arrangements. A guest book is available at www.shaw-majercik.com where you may post a condolence or light a candle.

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