April 10, 2020

Father Vincent M. O’Connor, Springfield Diocese’s most senior priest, dies at 97

REGIONAL
Staff report

SPRINGFIELD – Father Vincent M. O’Connor, 97, died on Good Friday, April 10, 2020.

The most senior priest in the Springfield Diocese, he had been a priest for 72 years.

He was born in Chicopee Falls on July 19, 1922 and graduated from the former Holy Name Elementary School and Cathedral High School, both in Springfield. He graduated from St. Anselm College in 1942 with a degree in classics. He completed studies for the priesthood at the House of Philosophy in Montreal, Canada (1942-44) and the Grand Seminary (1944-48), also in Montreal.

He was ordained to the priesthood on Jan. 24, 1948 in St. Michael’s Cathedral, Springfield, by Bishop Thomas M. O’Leary.

Father O’Connor served as a curate at the former St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Northampton from 1948 to 1952. He completed post-graduate studies at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. from 1952-53, earning a master’s degree in social work. He then served as chaplain at the Beaven Kelly Home in Holyoke from 1953 to 1969, during which time he also served as a social worker in the chancery office in Springfield.

Father O’Connor founded the Department of Social Works at Our Lady of the Elms College in Chicopee where he taught from 1954 to 1971; and served as diocesan director of the St. Vincent de Paul Society from 1953 to 1970. In 1969, he was appointed pastor of the former St. Catherine of Alexandria Parish in Leeds, from where he retired in 2002.

In recent years he has resided at Landmark at Monastery Heights in West Springfield, where each Christmas Eve he and Springfield Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski celebrated Mass for the residents. In spite of some physical limitations, he was a regular concelebrant at most major diocesan liturgical celebrations.