Alan Norris Connor

Connor—Alan Norris Connor, 97, on September 7, 2024, after a period of declining health, in Ann Arbor, Mich. Al was born on January 15, 1927, to Ethelbert “Bill” and Marion Connor, the first of their eight children, in Camden, N.J. He grew up in Glassboro, N.J., and from 1945 to 1947 served in the U.S. Army Air Corps, stationed mostly in the Philippines. He said, “In some ways, the Army was the best thing that ever happened to me—it was only by rejecting it that I learned to think for myself.”

Following his discharge, he attended Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C., majoring in English. He married Polly Lynnette Edgerton in 1952 and then worked as a journalist for a few years. His growing interest in social justice led him, with Polly, to direct student community service projects with American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in Berkeley, Calif. He received a master’s degree and a doctorate from the University of Michigan School of Social Work, where he later taught. In the 1960s, he was a clinical social worker at Longview State Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, for two years before moving to Kabwe, Zambia, to do community development work for AFSC.

Al served as director of the Ann Arbor Human Rights Commission in the 1970s and later as a community organizer in agricultural communities in Minnesota. Returning to Michigan, he became chair of the Department of Social Work at Siena Heights University in Adrian, Mich. He was a dedicated and enthusiastic organic gardener, and for a time had a farm near Adrian, where he loved to bring his grandchildren.

Al became a member of Ann Arbor Meeting in 1977, transferring his membership from Community Friends Meeting of Cincinnati. He served in a variety of roles, notably on the Ministry and Counsel Committee in the mid- to late-1980s, when the meeting housed a family of Salvadoran refugees; and later on the Friends Center Committee when the meeting created a residential community. Al was the driving force behind the establishment of the meeting’s Environment and Social Concerns Committee (later Earthcare Committee) in 1999, and remained active on it for the rest of his life. For both Ann Arbor Meeting and Lake Erie Yearly Meeting (LEYM), Al was a representative to Quaker Earthcare Witness (which he helped to found) and to Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL). He also served on LEYM’s Earthcare Committee.

Friends remember the integrity with which Al merged his beliefs and his actions; his persistent concern about global warming and environmental degradation; his encyclopedic depth of knowledge and remarkable range of personal acquaintances among local and national environmental activists; his frequent reminders about the importance of farmers, agriculture, and food; his leadership and compassion as a committee clerk; and his readiness to loan his pickup truck and his own manual labor in support of a good cause. One Friend recalled that “no matter what issue we were scheduled to lobby [with FCNL], Al always found an easy entry into the topic of the latest farm bill.” Another wrote that Al “embodied walking cheerfully and addressing God in everyone.”

Athletically gifted, Al played three sports in high school and at Guilford, and remained active in sports throughout his life. He played joyfully and well on the meeting’s recreational softball team in the early 1990s, despite being some 20 years senior to the next oldest player. He was an integral part of a gold medal-winning Senior Olympics basketball team and continued to play basketball weekly until he was 88.

Al is survived by his wife of 72 years, Polly Connor; three children, Tim, Karen, and Stephen Connor; seven grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; and five siblings.