Writer, publisher, poet, theater and dance critic died
on Saturday, Oct. 13, at age 87
Patrick O'Connor, writer, theatre and dance critic, publisher,
television producer, poet, and theatre director, died from
complications of pneumonia on Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012 in Houston,
Texas. He was 87.
Patrick O'Connor was born in coal territory, Braddock,
Pennsylvania, the eldest of five, on August 26,1925. His father was
the soccer coach at the local high school. Braddock continued to
play a major role in Patrick's life: up until quite recently,
Patrick wrote a weekly-ish column for the local paper, The Valley
Mirror, about his life and experiences from all over the country
and the world.
Patrick had attended Catholic University where his classmates
became life-long friends included Sada Thompson and Philip Bosco
and where he studied with New York Times critic Walter Kerr
(Patrick would quote Kerr on the subject of Chekhov; Kerr said that
Chekhov was not a playwright. This, of course, appalled almost
everyone).
With his Catholic University friends, he ran a theatre troupe in
Rochester (Olympia Dukakis was the box office treasurer),
eventually coming to New York where he had a variety of jobs,
including that of assistant to a theatrical agent. One of his very
best friends was Norma Lee Clark, Woody Allen's secretary for 30
years, who was encouraged by Patrick to start writing. She had
quite a bit of success with her bodice-rippers.
Patrick was a major fan of everything. (Were you to ask him how
he enjoyed a performance, be inevitably replied, "I was crazy about
it."). He had on-going correspondence with a wide range of artists,
writers and academics; among them Paul Taylor, F. Scott Fitzgerald,
Matthew Bruccoli and Robert Wilson. He launched many careers,
including those of Leonard Maltin and Michael Medvedev and he
mentored Hilton Als, now a staff writer and theatre critic at the
New Yorker and professor at Columbia University.
Patrick was a founding member of the Dance Critics Association and
also served as its president and conference coordinator, dipping
into his own pocket when DCA's funds were frozen. Whenever a dance
book was published, he would insist that he be sent a copy and a
second one be sent to the Patrick O'Connor Dance Library in
Israel.
As a dance critic (and sometime judge), he attended the annual
competition in Varna, Bulgaria. Patrick also taught a summer course
at Harvard in book publishing. He also taught at the University of
Colorado Boulder.
He made many, many life-long friends. One of them was an East
German scientist whose son is one of Patrick's godchildren and to
whom Patrick would send long-playing records. For years, his friend
would express his confusion about Patrick's choice of records: why
send us classical records? One day, he decided to listen to one. It
turned out that Patrick had been sneaking jazz records into East
Germany in Beethoven sleeves.
Patrick had lived in New York City most of his adult life,
moving to Killington, Vt so his partner, the late Andrew
Ciesielski, and he could be ski instructors. They eventually moved
to Glendale, California and also bad a home in Pompano Beach,
Florida.
Patrick is survived by two sisters and one brother, dozens of
nieces and nephews, many grandnieces and grandnephews and by his
partner, Bill Sansom of Houston. The family has agreed that any
memorial contributions be made to the Dance Critics
Association.
