Early Life and Education
John O'Connor was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the fourth of five children of Thomas J. and Dorothy Magdalene (née Gomple) O'Connor. He attended public schools until his junior year of high school, when he enrolled in West Catholic High. After graduating from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, he was ordained a priest on December 15, 1945. He was initially assigned to St. James High School in Chester, Pennsylvania. He obtained a master's degree in advanced ethics from Villanova University and a doctorate in political science from Georgetown University in 1970, where he took classes at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and wrote his dissertation under future United Nations ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick. He joined the United States Navy in 1952 as a Korean War chaplain, often entering combat zones in order to say Mass and administer last rites to soldiers. He rose through the ranks to become a rear admiral and Chief of Chaplains of the Navy.
Read more about this topic: John Joseph O'Connor
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