UPDATE: October 8th, 2024
John M. (Jack) Connors Jr. died on July 23 at the age of 82, after a terribly short illness. He was a famed philanthropist in the City of Boston as well as at Boston College, where the Connors Learning Center in O’Neill Library bears his name, as does the Connors Family Retreat and Conference Center in Dover. And he was a fixer, not unwilling to rattle cages on behalf of his city, particularly its most vulnerable residents, and his alma mater. His funeral was held at St. Ignatius Church on the Chestnut Hill Campus, attended prominently by the city and state’s power elite and by uniformed Catholic schoolchildren from the inner city who benefited from his tangible support for education. Midway through the spring semester, Connors paid a visit to Fulton Hall, fit and funny and grateful as ever for his many blessings in life. He had the final word in the June 2024 edition of Carroll Capital, the Carroll School’s annual publication. This online version includes material that did not appear in the print edition.
Originally published in Carroll Capital, the print publication of the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. Read the June 2024 edition here.
Jack Connors ’63, H ’07, P ’93, ’94—one of the most illustrious citizens of Boston and Boston College—stepped into the Carroll School dean’s office suite and exclaimed with a bright smile, “Are there any Eagles here!” He told the greeters that he first entered Fulton Hall 55 years ago, quipping that he visited the dean’s office mostly when he was in trouble. John and Linda Powers Family Dean Andy Boynton didn’t skip a beat—”You still are.” In 2019, Boston Magazine dubbed Connors “the last king of Boston.” He is co-founder and former CEO of Hill Holiday, which became one of the nation’s largest advertising firms; former chair of Partners Healthcare; and a longtime Boston College trustee. The dean interviewed him that day.
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The Boston College community and others remember Jack Connors
You’re a product of the old Boston, but you’ve helped usher in the new Boston. Tell me about the journey.
It’s a classic immigrant story. We lived in a two-family house in Roslindale, upstairs from my aunt’s family and my grandfather. At BC, we didn’t have the college experience that kids enjoy today. Every afternoon, I went off to work. I delivered flowers, sold peanuts at Fenway Park, and drove a Checker cab. My grandchildren tell me that college is harder today, and they’re right. But I tell them—I studied under the streetlights in my car.
Was there a turning point, a big break?
I was 25 and working for a big PR firm, and a top executive said something at a meeting that changed my life: “If Jack keeps his nose clean, by the time he’s 30 he’ll be a vice-president.” I quit the next morning, because I wanted to be the architect of my own destiny.
Then we started Hill Holiday. The first year we did $37,000 in revenue; the second year we did $44,000. And we made eight bucks a week for about three years. We had to go raise some working capital, so I did a little digging and found out that a vice president at Merchants National Bank was a BC graduate. This was in '68 or '69. I went to see him and said I'd like to borrow $10,000. I'm embarrassed to tell you this, but he asked me, "Do you have a pro forma?" I said, "What's a pro forma?" He said, "Oh, Jesus. Come back in the morning and there will be a check for $10,000 on the corner of my desk." That was the beginning of my understanding of power relationships.
Later on, I gave a presentation for the advertising account at Wang [one-time tech giant in the late 1970s and early 1980s]. The interviewer was another BC alum. He told me afterward that he had good news and bad news. The bad news was that I gave the worst of four presentations. The good news: “You got the account.” Which went eventually from $165,000 to $41 million.
And you started making things happen, including our Alumni Stadium renovation at Boston College in 1994 that made it what it is today.
The new mayor, Tom Menino, was saying that BC’s proposal was dead on arrival [due to community opposition]. So I met with him and said BC needs this and asked, “Are you going to give the necessary approval?” Menino responded: “Are you and I going to be friends?” I said, “It’s possible. It depends on your answer.” He then told me he wanted BC to fund a new neighborhood center in Brighton. BC did that, and he approved the stadium.
“Be the architect of your own destiny. And call someone you think might be lonely. Just to say hello.”
What’s driving your social philanthropy?
President Kennedy said a rising sea lifts all boats. He was 100 percent correct about the ocean, but it doesn’t work on land. The rising tide hasn’t lifted all boats. The Federal Reserve of Boston did a study some years ago showing that the average net worth of white families in Greater Boston was around $250,000—for Black families, it was just $8. And nobody seemed interested in Black and Brown kids, except the drug dealers. So Mayor Menino asked me if I had any ideas—he asked me this after a kid was shot in a playground. I drove him out to a harbor island and said, “If you give me 30 acres for a dollar a year, I’ll raise $10 million for a summer camp.” We started Camp Harbor View in 2007 and have since raised $109 million. We serve a thousand middle-school kids a summer. They swim, play, and learn. We take them on a ship and they see a world they've never seen before. They're safe, and they can dream.
As we all know, this sort of commitment and compassion for people different from you in the city hasn't always been Boston's brand. Where do you get it from?
No one ever taught me to hate. I don't hate anybody. I avoid a few people. But I don't have room to hate anything.
Do you have any advice for BC’s new graduates?
Be the architects of your own destiny. And call somebody that you think might be lonely. Just to say hello.
