Boston's historian dies

By adamg on Mon, 05/21/2012 - 5:23pm

Thomas O'Connor, a Boston College professor who made a career of writing about Boston, has died at 89, the Globe reports.

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Boston

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Comments

Quote from Thomas O'Connor

By Ian Lamont on Mon, 05/21/2012 - 7:30pm.

I took a class with Prof. O'Connor at the Harvard Extension School in 2005. He was a marvelous instructor who had an innate grasp of the life of the city from Colonial times to the present, and really explained the commercial/political/social forces that shaped the modern city.

I spotted this quote in the preface of The Hub:

"By eventually adapting to change and accommodating itself to modern ways -- although at times grudgingly, often angrily, and almost always slowly -- Boston has continued to be a live, functioning urban community that has not given into the nostalgic impulses that can so often turn a once-famous city into a lifeless historical shrine. ...

The most serious challenge Boston faces in the future, however, is not longer confined to the construction of high-rise buildings, multilane highways, or extravagant commercial developments. The current challenge is the extent to which Boston will be able to retain its own distinctive identity as a city whose moral standards, civic virtues, and intellectual accomplishments once inspired a nation."

This was written in 2001.

Had him as a . . .

By Chris Dowd on Mon, 05/21/2012 - 9:51pm.

. . . prof at Boston College and at Harvard Extension for a class I took for fun. Great guy- great professor. A man who will be missed by many but not forgotten.

Professor O'Connor was one of the great ones.

By issacg on Mon, 05/21/2012 - 10:38pm.

I believe that I took every class that he offered at BC when I was there. I have read almost all of his books. He was a man who believed in Boston in every way - a man who believed that this really could be the greatest place on earth.

Our city has lost a true friend, students of all ages a great teacher, and the world a real gentleman.

Preserving Boston archival documentation.

By theszak on Tue, 05/22/2012 - 12:12pm.

Having audited Thomas O'Connor's lectures, I know the great value of preserving for posterity the stenographic stenonote .sgstn record of the public meetings of Boston City Council. Although records management guidelines of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Archives provide that the cities and towns preserve these types of public records, Boston City Archives fail to archive the .sgstn stenographic stenonote of the public meetings of the City Council.