John J. O'Connor*
Class of 1981
- President Miami National Bank
I think if I had it to do over again, I might have started my own business.
Born in 1917, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, John O'Connor was sent to live with various foster families before he was a year old when his parents separated. His mother moved to New York and visited him on weekends. When O'Connor was 14, he joined his mother, who was living with her father and several sisters in New York. He got a job as a pageboy with National City Bank (later Citibank) while attending school.
After his high school graduation, O'Connor attended Columbia University in the evenings for two years on a bank scholarship and then studied finance at Pace Institute Evening College.
In 1942, at the height of World War II, O'Connor enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and served as a B-17 commander in Italy, flying 50 bombing missions. After the war, he returned to Citibank, rising to the rank of vice president before retiring in 1975.
O'Connor moved to Florida, where he joined Miami National Bank as executive vice president. In 1978, he became president and a member of the board. He retired from Miami National in 1981.