Crop of NPx 48-22:4016(4), December 1, 1930, Warm Springs, Georgia. Unrestricted. Image courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum.
Basil O'Connor
American, 1892 - 1972
Place of BirthTauton, Massachusetts, USA
Place of DeathPhoenix, Arizona, USA
BiographyBasil O'Connor was born in Taunton, Massachusetts on January 8, 1892. His parents were Daniel Basil and Elizabeth Ann (O'Gorman) O'Connor. O'Connor's boyhood dream was to become a lawyer. This resolve led him to enroll at Dartmouth College, where he earned his expenses by playing violin in the town orchestra. After earning his B.A. from Dartmouth in 1912, he went to Harvard Law School, from which he obtained his L.L.B. in 1915 and L.L.D. in 1946.
O'Connor was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1915, and to the New York bar in the following year, when he entered the law firm of Cravath and Henderson in New York City. After a year in New York, he returned to his native state to join the firm of Streeter and Holmes in Boston. By 1919 he was back in New York where he practiced a lone for five years. In 1925 O'Connor became the partner of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the firm of Roosevelt and O'Connor, which was not dissolved until 1933 when the senior partner entered the White House. In the course of their years of association, O'Connor had addressed Roosevelt successively as ''Franklin", "Governor", and "Mr. President". The former law partners continued their relationship throughout the Presidential years. In 1941 Raymond Clapper listed O'Connor as a member of "FDR's Unofficial Cabinet", which he described as, "kindred spirits, articulate men, with hair trigger minds who spark the President's thinking."
Although he never held a governmental position, O'Connor served the President in several capacities. Sharing Roosevelt's philanthropic concerns, he served as Chairman of the Executive Committee, Treasurer, and Trustee of the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, and as the President and Trustee of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. His interest in these foundations sprang from his friendship with the President, and from the inspiration he received from Roosevelt's courageous battle to overcome the effects of polio. In his capacity as Chairman and President, he raised hundreds of millions of dollars for research into poliomyelitis. The foundations he chaired supported the therapeutic research of Miss Elizabeth Kenny, and also provided the funds for the research of Dr. Jonas E. Salk, the discoverer of polio vaccine. O'Connor's crusade against polio led him to serve as the Trustee and Treasurer of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, the President of the International Poliomyelitis Conference, and as the President of the National Health Council. He was also active in the following organizations: The American Museum of Health, Human Engineering Laboratory, LaRabia Sanitarium, National Conference of Christians and Jews, Tuskegee Institute, Committee on Character and Fitness (of the Supreme Court), the Joint Conference on Legal Education, and the Friends of the Harvard Law School Library.
On February 4, 1939, O'Connor was appointed President of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Inc., a private organization created with the specific purpose of raising money, through public subscription, to erect and furnish a building to house the papers and other materials of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
In 1944, President Roosevelt appointed him to succeed Norman H. Davis as the Chairman of the Central Committee of the American Red Cross. As the new Chairman, O'Connor visited newly liberated areas of Europe to assess their immediate needs for relief, and to estimate the most effective role that could be played by the Red Cross in the Post War reconstruction period. O'Connor held this position until 1949, and for his services was decorated by several grateful European governments.
Upon the President's death in 1945, O'Connor was appointed Chairman of the Frankl in D. Roosevelt Memorial Committee, which was created to commission memorials and tributes to the late President. He held this position until 1946.
O'Connor continued to be active in philanthropic and public minded concerns until his death on March 9, 1972.
[Source: https://fdrlibrary.org/documents/356632/390886/findingaid_oconnor.pdf/a8624e3f-c0db-4b35-9109-669ef240333c]
O'Connor was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1915, and to the New York bar in the following year, when he entered the law firm of Cravath and Henderson in New York City. After a year in New York, he returned to his native state to join the firm of Streeter and Holmes in Boston. By 1919 he was back in New York where he practiced a lone for five years. In 1925 O'Connor became the partner of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the firm of Roosevelt and O'Connor, which was not dissolved until 1933 when the senior partner entered the White House. In the course of their years of association, O'Connor had addressed Roosevelt successively as ''Franklin", "Governor", and "Mr. President". The former law partners continued their relationship throughout the Presidential years. In 1941 Raymond Clapper listed O'Connor as a member of "FDR's Unofficial Cabinet", which he described as, "kindred spirits, articulate men, with hair trigger minds who spark the President's thinking."
Although he never held a governmental position, O'Connor served the President in several capacities. Sharing Roosevelt's philanthropic concerns, he served as Chairman of the Executive Committee, Treasurer, and Trustee of the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, and as the President and Trustee of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. His interest in these foundations sprang from his friendship with the President, and from the inspiration he received from Roosevelt's courageous battle to overcome the effects of polio. In his capacity as Chairman and President, he raised hundreds of millions of dollars for research into poliomyelitis. The foundations he chaired supported the therapeutic research of Miss Elizabeth Kenny, and also provided the funds for the research of Dr. Jonas E. Salk, the discoverer of polio vaccine. O'Connor's crusade against polio led him to serve as the Trustee and Treasurer of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, the President of the International Poliomyelitis Conference, and as the President of the National Health Council. He was also active in the following organizations: The American Museum of Health, Human Engineering Laboratory, LaRabia Sanitarium, National Conference of Christians and Jews, Tuskegee Institute, Committee on Character and Fitness (of the Supreme Court), the Joint Conference on Legal Education, and the Friends of the Harvard Law School Library.
On February 4, 1939, O'Connor was appointed President of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Inc., a private organization created with the specific purpose of raising money, through public subscription, to erect and furnish a building to house the papers and other materials of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
In 1944, President Roosevelt appointed him to succeed Norman H. Davis as the Chairman of the Central Committee of the American Red Cross. As the new Chairman, O'Connor visited newly liberated areas of Europe to assess their immediate needs for relief, and to estimate the most effective role that could be played by the Red Cross in the Post War reconstruction period. O'Connor held this position until 1949, and for his services was decorated by several grateful European governments.
Upon the President's death in 1945, O'Connor was appointed Chairman of the Frankl in D. Roosevelt Memorial Committee, which was created to commission memorials and tributes to the late President. He held this position until 1946.
O'Connor continued to be active in philanthropic and public minded concerns until his death on March 9, 1972.
[Source: https://fdrlibrary.org/documents/356632/390886/findingaid_oconnor.pdf/a8624e3f-c0db-4b35-9109-669ef240333c]