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Kevin G. O’Connell, S.J., was born May 22, 1938 in Boston, Massachusetts, and passed away on January 21, 2016 in Weston, Massachusetts.

O'Connell entered the Society of Jesus on August 14, 1956, at the Novitiate of St. Andrew-on-Hudson in Poughkeepsie, New York. Later, he was ordained on May 31, 1969, in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, at St. Ignatius Church. On February 2, 1975, O’Connell made his final vows in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the Weston School of Theology (at Episcopal Divinity School). Between 1977 and 1978, O’Connell completed his tertianship with a Japanese-American Southern Province Jesuit, Jim Yamauchi.

Higher Education
O’Connell was well-educated. In 1962, O’Connell received a Bachelor’s degree in Arts, Classics, and Philosophy from Boston College. In 1962, O’Connell received a Bachelor’s degree in Arts, Classics, and Philosophy from Boston College, and the following year, received a Master’s degree in Philosophy from Weston College. In 1968, O’Connell received a Doctorate in Philosophy, Near Eastern Languages, and Old Testament from Harvard University, and in 1969 received his Master’s of Divinity from the Weston College School of Theology in 1969.

O’Connell was a professor at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology, and was both a professor, and chair of the Religious Studies Development at John Carroll University, a Jesuit institution in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1980 he traveled to Jerusalem, Israel, to the Albright Institute on sabbatical.

O’Connell was an active scholar in his field, who published four articles, and nearly forty book-reviews in a variety of scholarly journals. Additionally, O’Connell wrote and co-authored a number of books, with his most notable contribution being a five volume collection he co-authored entitled The Joint Archaeological Expedition to Tell el-Hesi.

Le Moyne's Ninth President
On January 11, 1988, O’Connell assumed the position of president of Le Moyne College.

Building on Excellence
Campus development was the hallmark of O'Connell's vision for the long-term future of the College. Within his first year as president, he announced the "Building on Excellence" campaign as a way to fund his long-term vision of campus development for the College. The expansion included the construction of Loyola Hall, six townhouses, a new parking lot, renovation and creation of a softball field and soccer field, renovations to residence halls Dablon and St. Mary’s, a new campus center, among other smaller, yet equally visible developments. To finance these projects, an estimated $43 million needed to be raised, which O’Connell suggested occur in three phases, over the course of more than a decade. During his time as president, O’Connell expanded the footprint of the campus by nearly forty percent.

A Controversial Legacy
O’Connell’s long-term vision for the future of Le Moyne doubled rather poorly as his short-term response to the forecasted downturn in both the size of the applicant pool, and the economy heading into the 1990s. When 1990 arrived, the application downturn, as well as the economic one, were both realized, which meant O’Connell was faced with a new set of challenges. In effect, he had to reconcile his “Building on Excellence” vision against budget cuts and a decrease in enrollment, while simultaneously attempting to prevent an increase in tuition. His solution was to suspend cost-of-living-adjustments (COLA) in the 1991-92 budget.

The faculty felt O’Connell had disenfranchised them on account of the changes he made to the structure of the College’s Administration. Among many grievances that faculty voiced against O’Connell, and his leadership, the faculty cited that they were precluded from contributing to salary discussions.

In March of 1992, the Faculty Senate voted to hold a referendum of “no confidence” in O’Connell’s leadership, and in April, they voted overwhelmingly that they had “no confidence” in his leadership. A year later, in May 1993, O’Connell tendered his resignation from his position as president of Le Moyne College, stating that he could no longer rely on the support of the Board of Trustees.

Life After Le Moyne
Following his time as president of Le Moyne College, O’Connell maintained a career in academia. In 1993, he went on sabbatical at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, and in 1994, he returned to Boston, Massachusetts to assume the position as the Associate Director of the New England Province Development Office. Afterwards, O’Connell was engaged in Jesuit-related activities for the next 15 years in the United States and in Amman, Jordan.