John Stuart

Mcconnell

McCONNELL, JOHN S., a veteran resident of Chelsea, age 56, died Wednesday, May 17, 2017 at Brigham & Women's Hospital, at 75 Francis Street in Boston from complications of congestive heart failure. A beloved husband, John McConnell is survived by his wife, Maria, whom he married in December 2012. A devoted father, John had three adult children he had lovingly reared in their early years, Zackary McConnell, Katie McConnell and Hilary McConnell. A loving brother, John leaves an elder sister Nancy Crowe Lynch (Jeff) and brother, Dan Crowe, Sr., and many nieces, nephews and cousins. John was born in St. Joseph's Hospital in Atlanta Georgia to William Dan Crowe, Jr., and Mary Ruth (Harper) Crowe, but later took the name of his stepfather, P. Eugene McConnell.

John was proud to be an honorably discharged, U.S. Marine Corps veteran. He served for four years during the Cold War in military intelligence as a Cryptologic Russian Linguist. John was a 1985 graduate of the Presidio of Monterey, Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in California, and the recipient of the DLI-FLC Martin J. Kellogg Award for exceptional achievement in the understanding of a foreign culture (Russia) and for academic achievement.

John was a kind, loving soul who enjoyed travel, foreign cultures, learning languages, books, laughter and scholarly pursuits. He held a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from the University of Maryland at College Park, a Master's Degree in Creative Writing from the University of Maine-Bangor, and had also earned a foreign Bachelor of Science degree with Honors in Pure Chemistry (with a specialization in Organic Chemistry) from the University of Aberdeen, in Scotland. Prior to relocating to Boston, John worked professionally as an applied research chemist and as a science technical editor in California for life-science firms including Bio-Rad Laboratories, the world's fifth largest life-science research laboratory.

After relocating to the Boston area in 2008 John worked to advocate for and empower veterans. From 2008 to 2012 he worked on the Operations staff of the New England Center for Homeless Veterans and in 2010 became a resident of the Chelsea Soldiers Home (CSH). From 2011 to 2012 he succeeded his wife, a US Air Force officer veteran and also a resident of the Chelsea Soldiers Home, as Program Director of the UMass Boston Veterans Upward Bound Program located at the Chelsea Soldiers Home. In May of 2015, both John and his wife, Maria were elected to the 2015-2016 CSH Residents Council. John and his wife, Maria, a former US Air Force Intelligence Instructor and an Oxford University alumna, were the first married veteran couple to live at the Chelsea Soldiers Home albeit in separate dormitory residences throughout their four and a half years of married life there—a cross they bore together. While on the CSH Residents Council John used his excellent writing skills and his interest in military history to design, write and edit the first newsletter to be published by an elected CSH Residents Council. The 2015-2016 CSH Residents Council's newsletter became an iconic feature of the 2015-2016 CSH Residents Council's term of service. John was inspired by the mission and work of the Council, which sought to inform and empower Soldiers Home residents. For a time he also served as the Council's meeting chairman and strove to effect positive change at the Home to improve the lives of the Home's poor, sick, elderly and disabled independent-living residents.

John also supported and assisted his wife, Maria in her volunteer work advocating for veterans and promoting Massachusetts public history at the Massachusetts State House. The last volunteer state house event the two hosted together was held in October 2016 honoring the centennial birthday of former MA First Lady, the late Jessie Fay Sargent, the founder of the MA State House docents organization, the Doric Docents. The event was attended by the current MA First Lady, Lauren Baker. A May 2014 state house event at which John also assisted celebrated the 95 ^th anniversary of the 1924 US Foreign Service Act--legislation that was pushed through Congress by a Massachusetts congressman and senator, and signed by President Calvin Coolidge, a former Massachusetts Governor. This historic MA state house event included a video message, and a special State Department guest speaker sent by Secretary of State John Kerry from Washington DC.

Having also lived for several years in Japan, John was fluent in Japanese and Russian. At the time of his death he was a diligent scholar of the biblical languages of Latin, Hebrew and Greek. John also had a facility for French and German. John had a great mind and loved classical music, Gregorian chant, literature and history, and read volumes on subjects such as Lincoln, Shakespeare, Latin, logic, rhetoric, law, philosophy and commentaries by the Doctors of the Church. He loved browsing Brattle's bookstore in downtown Boston for rare books on the Catholic Faith and the Roman Catholic Church prior to the 1960s. John's superlative life accomplishment as a devout Catholic husband was in bringing his family to the Traditional Catholic Faith and in building a quintessential Catholic library that would support his family's life and practice of the Catholic Faith as Traditional Roman Catholics. Prior to his heart attack John began making rosaries when he wasn't studying, or advocating for a veterans-related cause.

Born into a Protestant family (First Baptist Church), John's spent his whole life quietly dedicated to seeking the Truth and in becoming a dedicated servant of God. In April 2010 he converted to Roman Catholicism. In October 2013, he and his wife Maria became a Traditional Roman Catholic family. His spirituality and his love of God and humanity were highly influenced by the charism, history and prayers of St. Francis of Assisi and the Franciscan Order. One of John's last wishes was to become a member of the Third Order of St. Francis, the tertiary or lay community of the Order, prior to his death. Honoring his wish, John was received into the Franciscan Third Order a month before his death on Easter Tuesday, April 18, 2017, by Rev. Francis Miller, OFM of Lafayette, Louisiana. John will be reposed in the brown habit of the Franciscan Order, with his Tertiary manual and his Franciscan Crown Rosary he always carried. John loved God and treasured his Catholic Faith. One of John's last text messages to his wife was, "Love to all."

A Traditional Roman Catholic Requiem Mass (Latin/English) will be held at 10:00am on Wednesday, May 31, 2017, the Feast of Mary Immaculate Queen of Heaven, at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Traditional Roman Catholic Church located at 290 Main Street in Salem, New Hampshire. At 2:30pm Wednesday afternoon John will be interred at the VA National Cemetery in Bourne, Massachusetts with U.S. Marine Corps honors. In accordance with his love of Scotland and his UK heritage, John asked that a Scottish bagpiper play "Scotland the Brave" at his interment. He also asked that the song "Crossing the Bar" be played in his memory--a song, the lyrics of which are derived from a poem of the same name by Alfred Lord Tennyson.

In lieu of flowers or other non-Traditional Catholic memorials the family kindly asks that donations be mailed to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Salem, NH, or John's widow for Traditional Catholic (Latin) Masses to be offered for the repose of John's soul. Cards of sympathy may be sent to his widow, Maria McConnell, also a veteran, in residence at the Chelsea Soldiers Home, 91 Crest Avenue, Chelsea, MA 02150.