Charles O'Connell, former University of Chicago Vice President and Dean of Students

Charles O'Connell, former Vice President and Dean of Students of the University of Chicago, died at his home in Chicago December 22 at the age of 79. O'Connell served as Dean of Students from 1967 until his retirement in 1986. He was named a Vice President of the University in 1973.

O'Connell played a major national role in the development of policies on college recruitment, admissions and financial aid and was also a leader in national and international scholarship programs.

From 1962 until 1986, he was a member of the faculty of the Division of the Humanities, where he had been named an Associate Professor in 1970. From 1959 to 1970, he served as Secretary of the Faculties. After his retirement in 1986, O'Connell continued to serve the University part-time as a Special Assistant to the President and as an Associate Professor.

O'Connell was held in high esteem by the University of Chicago community both for his long and distinguished service and for an extraordinarily generous spirit. "Chuck represented the worthiest traditions of the University, which he sought to defend in the best and worst of times. Edward and I cherished our friendship with him and Peg," said Mrs. Edward Levi, widow of the former University president

O'Connell joined the University of Chicago staff as Assistant Director of Admissions in 1952 after teaching at Roosevelt University and Creighton University. In 1957 he became Director of University Admissions and Aid, a post he held until his appointment as Dean of Students in 1967.

On his retirement, O'Connell was praised by then University President Hanna Gray. "It is hard to think of this University without Chuck O'Connell's presence. He has been the preeminent Dean of Students in the country, and he has provided me and my predecessors with advice and guidance on every key issue affecting admissions and aid, student life and related areas that have determined the policies of the University and fashioned the kind of place it is today and will bthe future."

He earned an A.M. in English from the University of Chicago in 1947 where he pursued doctoral studies from 1947 to 1950. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto in 1943. In 1974 O'Connell received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Salve Regina University, Newport, Rhode Island, where he served on the Board of Trustees.

From 1943 to 1946, he saw duty in World War II with the U.S. Army Signal Corps in Africa, Italy, and Austria and was recalled to duty from 1950 to 1951 during the Korean War.

O'Connell also gave many years' service to numerous educational and philanthropic organizations, including the Chicago Tribune Foundation, the Pullman Foundation, the College Entrance Examination Board, where he was chairman of the Board of Trustees from 1968 to 1979, the Educational Testing Service, where he was Chairman of the Trustee Committee on Finance from 1983 to 1986, the National Association of College Admission Counselors, the Advisory Committee of the Illinois Board of Higher Education, the Consortium on Financing Higher Education, the Federation of Independent Illinois Colleges and Universities, the Brunswick Charitable Foundation, and the Calvert Foundation of Chicago. He was an educational advisor to numerous other foundations including Inland-Steel, Brunswick Corporation, the Seafarers' International Union, LaSalle Steel and Continental Broadcasting.

"Chuck helped anyone who ever asked him for help," said Jonathan Kleinbard, Deputy Director of the Missouri Botanical Garden and former University of Chicago Vice President. "During the troubled times of the 60's, Chuck was always sympathetic to students but felt that as part of their education, they needed to understand the necessity for standards for their conduct and their academic work."

O'Connell was for many years a member of the Parish Board of St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in Hyde Park, where there will be a visitation Wednesday from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. and a funeral mass Thursday at 10:00 a.m.

O'Connell is survived by his wife, Margaret Nornheim O'Connell, who received a Ph.D. from the University in 1962, as well as numerous nieces, nephews, grandnieces, and grandnephews.

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