When Fred O’Connor and his wife had just welcomed their now 30-year-old son, the power went out in their Chicago home. O’Connor’s wife, fearing for the newborn in the cold, urged O’Connor to see if he could call in a favor with one of the ComEd repair crews, a familiar sight in Chicago after heavy storms.
While the repair crews wouldn’t be able to make it up the hill to O’Connor’s house for a few hours, the representative on duty told O’Connor she wanted to pass on something else — all of her co-workers’ high regards for his father, recently departed CEO of ComEd.
James O’Connor Sr., who led energy giant Commonwealth Edison for nearly two decades, died in Chicago on Monday night. He was 86.
“He was an extremely nice man,” Fred O’Connor, O’Connor’s son, told the Chicago Tribune. “People thought he was very funny, he was kind, he was generous. He was human too, by the way — plenty of foibles — but my goodness, it was a package that I think most of us would be envious of.
O’Connor was CEO of ComEd, formerly known as Unicom Corp., from 1980 until 1998. While CEO, he received the Order of Lincoln, the highest award given by the state of Illinois.
O’Connor was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago. He graduated from Holy Cross University in 1958 with a degree in economics and attended Harvard Business School. After getting his MBA in 1960, O’Connor worked in Washington, D.C., on active duty for the U.S. Air Force, while attending law school at Georgetown at night. Later in life, O’Connor received honorary degrees from five Chicago universities, including DePaul and the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Between 1963 and 1980, O’Connor rose through the ranks at ComEd before serving as CEO until 1998. Much of his time at the head of ComEd was spent grappling with the company’s nuclear program, which faced structural and financial challenges despite O’Connor’s sterling civic reputation.
“Through very very difficult situations he was trying to manage, he always made sure he did it fairly,” Fred O’Connor, said.
O’Connor went on to lead the Chicago Chamber of Commerce from 1990 to 1994. He also served on the board of many Chicago and national corporations, including United Airlines, Armstrong World Industries, Tribune Publishing, Corning, the Chicago Stock Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade.
“My dad really was a worker,” Fred O’Connor said. “He almost couldn’t help himself.”
O’Connor established a deep legacy in multiple charitable and cultural institutions around Chicago, and was always trying to convince industry peers to make similar investments, Fred O’Connor said.
“If you think of an important institution in Chicago, from the Lyric Opera to the Adler Planetarium to the Field Museum to the Art Institute … he’s a lifetime trustee or donor,” Fred O’Connor said. “You’d be hard-pressed to find anybody who did more of that.”
O’Connor was also a trustee of Northwestern University and chaired the Chicago Urban League, Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau, the American Cancer Society and the 100 Club, which raises money for families of first responders killed while on active duty.
“He was able to attract money and resources to important things in the city,” Fred O’Connor said. “He was from an era where a lot of business leaders were civic leaders, and they cared deeply.”
O’Connor was perhaps proudest, however, of his work at the Big Shoulders Fund, an organization helping underserved Catholic schools in Chicago and northwest Indiana. In 37 years as co-founder, O’Connor helped raise more than $200 million benefiting 101 schools.
The college graduation rate for students at schools served by Big Shoulders Fund currently stands around double the national average.
“Jim’s impact extends far and wide and will continue to be felt for generations,” Big Shoulders Fund CEO Joshua Hale wrote to fund supporters Monday night.
In the moments he did step away from various philanthropic commitments around the city, O’Connor was an avid Chicago sports fan. Nights out to baseball, basketball and hockey games alike were a beloved bonding experience for the whole family, though Fred O’Connor said his father had a soft spot for the Sox.
“I cannot recall a time I got into the car as a boy that he didn’t have the sports on (the radio),” Fred O’Connor said.
An avid history buff and collector of coins and Civil War memorabilia, O’Connor was “fascinated” by the American West, Fred O’Connor said. He taught all of his children to ride horses and enjoyed the occasional escape to visit the sheep and goats at a family farm purchased by O’Connor’s grandfather.
He was deeply devoted to wife Ellen, an active and accomplished philanthropist in her own right, who became his caregiver while he was wheelchair-bound for the last six years of his life. The O’Connors were frequent travelers who enjoyed going to the symphony together and dining out around Chicago.
“He had a very full life,” Fred O’Connor said. “They had a very full life.”
O’Connor was inducted into the Chicago Business Hall of Fame in 1987.
Survivors also include his wife; another son, James Jr.; a daughter Elizabeth; and nine grandchildren.
