Thomas H. O’Connor, author, Boston College’s historian and retired professor of history, died at his Milton home on Sunday after suffering a heart attack. He was 89.
Mr. O’Connor’s books included “Boston Catholics,” “Civil War Boston” and “The Boston Irish.”
A South Boston native and graduate iof Boston Latin High School, he served in the Army in India in World War II before returning to Boston.
He joined the Boston College faculty in 1950, after graduating from Boston College in 1949. From 1962 to 1970, he served as chairman of the history department. His fields of interest included mid-19th-century American history, the Age of Jackson, and the Civil War.
He earned his master’s degree and doctarate at Boston College.
Among his many other books were “Boston College A to Z: The Spirit of the Heights” (an e-book ), “Ascending the Heights: A Brief History of Boston College from its Founding to 2008,” “The Athens of America: Boston, 1825-1845,” “Eminent Bostonians,” “The Hub: Boston Past and Present,” “Boston A to Z,” “Boston Catholics: A History of the Church and its People,” “Civil War Boston: Homefront and Battlefield,” “The Boston Irish: A Political History,”” Building a New Boston: Politics and Urban Renewal 1950 to 1970″ and “South Boston My Hometown: A History of an Ethnic Neighborhood.”
He also edited “Two Centuries of Faith: The Influence of Catholicism on Boston, 1808-2008,” which was commissioned by Boston College as a gift to the Archdiocese of Boston in recognition of its 200th anniversary.
In 2004, colleagues celebrated the publication of “Boston’s Histories: Essays in Honor of Thomas H. O’Connor.”
He won a local Emmy Award in 1996 for his role as historical consultant and narrator for the WGBH television documentary “Boston: The Way it Was.”
He was a trustee of the Bostonian Society, a resident fellow at the Massachusetts Historical Society and a member of the Massachusetts Archives Commission.
In 1988, President Ronald Reagan appointed him to the Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution, and in 1999 he received the Gold Medal of the Eire Society of Boston.
Boston College presented him an honorary degree on his retirement from full-time teaching in 1993.
He was named the university’s official historian in 1999. At the time, he told the Interviewed by the Boston College Chronicle:
“Boston College is the classic monument to the heights that immigrants have achieved in America. It is an institution that was literally built nickel by nickel, brick by brick, by penniless immigrants who wanted to make sure their children got an education. That story is really the story of the Irish in Boston.
“You come upon Boston College now and it’s glorious, magnificent. But the story takes on greater drama when you get behind the façade and look at the work it took to build it.”
Mr. O’Connor was a longtime resident of Braintree before moving to Milton several years ago.
He was a founder of St. Coletta Day School in Baintree, which provides academic, vocational and recreational programs for students with moderate to severe developmental disabilities and emotional, behavioral and physical challenges.
He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Mary; children, Steven, Jeanne O’Connor-Green of Milton and Michael of Newburyport; and two grandsons.
A funeral Mass for will be celebrated Thursday at St. Thomas More Church in Braintree.
Listen to Thomas O’Connor reflect on life in Catholic parishes during the Great Depression.