In 1954, recent Law School graduate John Jay O'Connor III was drafted by the Army and posted to Frankfurt, Germany, with the Judge Advocate General's Corps. Rather than wait until the Army could ship her overseas, his wife bought her own ticket to Europe. He showed equal devotion to their marriage and her work; when Sandra Day O'Connor was uncertain about accepting President Ronald Reagan's offer to make her the first female Supreme Court justice, her husband said, "You have to do it. It'll be fine."
John O'Connor, '51, JD '53, died in Phoenix on November 11. He was 79. Alzheimer's disease had forced him to retire in 2003, and Justice O'Connor in 2005 cited his illness in stepping down from the court.
Charming, friendly and a well-regarded specialist in property law, O'Connor was best known in his later years as the husband of the first woman to sit on the high court. Sandra Day O'Connor, '50, JD '52, says he took it all in stride: "He served as the president of the male auxiliary of the U.S. Supreme Court for several years and he did a very fine job at it."
Their relationship blossomed from a late-night edit of a submission to the Stanford Law Review in 1951. After finishing the revisions, John suggested they go out for a drink. "We had a beer, got acquainted and that was that," O'Connor says. They were married December 20 the next year.
O'Connor is survived by his wife; three sons, Scott, '79, Brian, and Jay, '84; and six grandchildren.
