John J. Connelly

Born to Thomas J. Connelly (County Mayo, Ireland) and Kathleen Connelly (nee Guilfoyle, County Clare, Ireland), third of four children, Thomas Connelly, Mary Kunz, and Anthony Connelly all now deceased.

Survived by beloved spouse of almost 64 years, Mary Louise Connelly (nee Bigelow, married 1954, Grandma Cookie) and seven children: Thomas (Shauna), Kathleen (Carolyn Sampson), John, Timothy (Leslie), Michael (Norma Villa), Brian (Susan), Maureen Kirk (James), and grandchildren Caitlin, Patrick, Megan, Sean, Stephanie, John, Julia, Daniel, Anthony, and Elizabeth.

John’s mother died when he was 2, and his father kept all the children together, never remarrying. John was raised by a loving man who was mother and father to him, with other relatives and friends providing extra care and attention. He and his siblings grew up playing in Como Park, shagging golf balls, roaring back at the lions, and warming up in the glass house. Their childhood home was the old St. Andrew mission church, converted by their dad into the only home John would have until he went to war. His dad’s sadness at having left behind his family in Ireland when he immigrated to the United States instilled a fierce love of family in John, which he passed on to his children. The children’s other playgrounds included the coal piles at the old NSP plant where their dad worked and the railroad yards. The family lived close to the railroad tracks, and their tiny neighborhood was remarkably diverse for St. Paul, with Irish, African Americans, Swedes, Czechs, Hungarians, Italians and Germans, all living, working, playing and scraping by together. John never held himself above anyone else, and treated everyone - Supreme Court Justices and clerks, tradesmen and billionaires, farmers and factory owners - with the same respect.

John grew up in and loved the Como Park area of St. Paul. He graduated from Washington High School, where he played hockey, football, and baseball. In 1944 John enlisted in the Navy and served proudly on the escort carrier USS Siboney in the Pacific theater, including Leyte Gulf, through the end of WWII.

Returning home after the war, he attended Hamline University, and was recruited away by the University of Minnesota to play hockey. He graduated from the U of M with a degree in economics and earned a law degree at the University of Notre Dame Law School, planning to practice labor law in honor of his father, who helped unionize NSP. John was admitted to the Minnesota Bar in 1953. During this time he was starting his family as well as his law practice, and briefly supplemented his income driving trucks and other work, reflecting his belief that all honest work is honorable, with inherent dignity.

John was in private practice until 1959, when he was appointed as an Assistant United States Attorney and served until 1964 when he returned to private practice. As an Assistant US Attorney, his work included traveling to the Arrowhead region for condemnation proceedings related to the creation of the Boundary Water Canoe Area Wilderness. He recognized the value of that work, he also recognized the adverse effects on the people whose land was being taken. He was able to make it possible for some individuals to continue living within the wilderness area after their land was condemned, most notably Dorothy Molter.

In 1965 John was appointed as a US bankruptcy referee and was appointed as a judge after the US Bankruptcy Court was created in 1978. He served until 1986 and retired as Minnesota’s first Chief Bankruptcy Judge. In 1987, he returned to private practice for a time as a senior partner with Lindquist and Vennum, retiring from private practice in 1994 to take an appointment to serve as a bankruptcy judge in the Southern District of New York. He and Mary commuted between the Twin Cities and White Plains, New York through 2002, when he resigned from the bench. After this he continued to work as a mediator in complex bankruptcy cases, eventually retiring, for the fourth time.

John taught bankruptcy law at the University of Minnesota as an adjunct professor and was one of the original board members at the founding of the University of St. Thomas School of Law.

John was an early adopter of new technologies before that term existed. A war injury that impaired his hearing coupled with his training as an electrician in the Navy prompted his interest in innovative audio equipment, and he frequently brought home equipment on which he would play all types of music, including Liszt, Rodgers and Hammerstein, the Clancy Brothers, the Sons of the Pioneers, Puccini and Enya. That interest in technology continued, with John using computers, iPads and cell phones as skillfully as his grandkids.

His love of the land and nature was shared with his family during family road trips out West, vacations to the Arrowhead and Central Minnesota, and in the extraordinary back yard of the beautiful home on Ridge Street that he and Mary made for their family. When Mary and John purchased that home, it included a rose garden that became John’s special hobby. Each year, John cut the first bloom and the last bloom in his rose gardens and gave them to Mary.

John loved most sports and played them with passion and physical grace. His prowess helped pay his way through school. When his children started to play sports, John gave countless hours coaching hockey and football, teaching sportsmanship as well as technical skills.

Interested in all things Irish and St. Paul, John was involved in the beginnings of the Saint Patrick’s Day Association in 1967 and was honored as Mr. Pat in 1987. John attended the annual St. Paul St. Patrick’s Day parades and associated festivities, well into his 80s. He convened an extended Connelly family St. Patrick’s gathering each year at Mancini’s, including 2018, reinforcing the love of family and their Irish heritage. John’s travels to Ireland reunited him with his father’s and mother’s families who still work the farms where John’s parents were born. He felt like he was coming home in Ireland, and was able to enjoy sharing it with some of his children on several memorable trips. Those trips to his relatives’ farms in Ireland fueled his understanding and compassion in his bankruptcy court during the Farm Crisis of the 1980’s, in cases where he fairly and carefully balanced the interests of debtor family farmers and creditor banks.

John’s travels included trips to Mexico and Hawaii, cruises in the Caribbean and the Panama Canal, camping and hunting trips, visits to Europe and cherished stays in New York. He never returned to Asia after the war, but had lasting memories of Hong Kong and Japan, the land and the people. When negotiating for the purchase of a silk blouse for his sister Mary, a skeptical clerk was at last convinced and moved by the boy’s filial love and sincerity when he selected the most modest blouse on offer. John had charmed the shopkeeper, his enemy until just weeks before, by simply being himself.

His Catholic faith was as central to John as was his love for his wife and children. His children all remember from their earliest years, their dad kneeling by his bedside and saying his evening prayers, his head bowed over his rosary. One of his and his family’s most cherished memories was the family Mass celebrated by Father John Malone in their home last autumn. Weekly Mass, spiritual retreats, and daily prayers were only the visible signs of a rich interior spiritual life that guided all of his life decisions. In recent years, he and Mary each night would say the rosary together between 8:30 and 9. On his last night with us, his family gathered at his bedside to say the rosary with him.

John will be deeply missed by his family, friends and colleagues. John’s family would like to extend special thanks to Our Lady of Peace Hospice, and especially Cathy Kramer, for the many months of supportive and loving care that made it possible for John to stay at home with Mary.

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