BOSTON (WHDH) – Jack Connors, the well-known Boston philanthropist, has died at the age of 82.
Connors founded Camp Harbor View, which created programs to inspire young people, and was a leader in business and gave time and money to the Boston community.
Governor Maura Healey said his advocacy for education, healthcare, and community will live on.
“Massachusetts lost a champion today and I have lost a friend,” Healey said in a statement. “Jack Connors was a leader in business, but his most lasting legacy will come from his generosity and philanthropy. Jack spent his life trying to make Massachusetts and this country a fairer, more inclusive place – and he succeeded.”
Archbishop of Boston Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley said Greater Boston is a better community because of Connors’ work.
“While his gifts of intelligence and wisdom enhanced the Archdiocese of Boston in multiple ways, it was the education of children which captured his heart and engaged his enormous energy,” O’Malley said in a statement. “The founder and the continuing inspiration of the Campaign for Catholic Schools, Jack drew a broad range of talented women and men together in the service of providing quality education for children of all faiths and from all social strata of our civil society.”
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren shared her own statement after Connors’ death, saying he “dedicated his life to looking out for families in Boston who were too often left behind.”
“He was always focused on what more we can do to help others,” Warren said.
Warren credited Connors’ investments into women’s health “at a time when women’s health was long ignored.”
“His legacy will echo for generations,” she said.
As a founding partner of Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, Inc., Connors saw the marketing and communications firm grow into one of the largest advertising agencies in the country.
Connors served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Partners HealthCare System, now Mass General Brigham, for 16 years. A graduate of Boston College, he served on that institution’s Board of Trustees for over 30 years. He was also a member of the Board of Fellows at Harvard Medical School, and the Board of Dean’s Advisors for the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
He is survived by his wife Eileen, four children, and many grandchildren.
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