Charitable Gift Annuity: UCR was transformative in Bill O'Connor's life. Now he's giving back.
The William O'Connor Student Award for Academic Excellence will support talented students transferring to UCR from a community college.
Over the course of his 30-year career as a high school civics teacher, Bill O'Connor has given bucketloads of advice to students. Among his top recommendations: get involved in activities you enjoy, make professional connections, and explore the world around you.
O'Connor began developing this viewpoint as a student at UC Riverside, where he completed a bachelor's in political science and history in 1968, and, after serving in the Army during the Vietnam War, a teaching credential in 1972. A highlight of his time at UCR was his involvement in campus clubs, in which he honed his interpersonal skills and developed a lifelong interest in government, politics and international relations.
O'Connor and his wife Connie, who is also a retired educator, are giving back to UCR through the William O'Connor Student Award for Academic Excellence. The endowed award was established in 2015 to help ease the financial burden for talented students who transfer to UCR from a community college. In 2017, O'Connor added to the fund by giving UCR a generous planned gift in the form of a Charitable Gift Annuity. In total, the family have pledged more than $220,000.
The child of an Irish Catholic mother, O'Connor had a modest start in life, residing in a children's home in the southwest of England before being permanently reunited with his mother when she married an American airman stationed outside of London. The marriage brought the family to the U.S., where O'Connor's mother was naturalized and O'Connor, then 11, and his brother became American citizens.
While O'Connor's father was from the Los Angeles suburb of Compton, his military career took the family to Texas, back to England, and then to March Air Force Base in Moreno Valley. O'Connor graduated from Polytechnic High School in Riverside and completed his first two years of college at Riverside City College before joining UCR to study political science and history.
O'Connor lived at home during his time at UCR, juggling his studies with family duties and various part-time jobs. Throughout his time as an undergraduate, O'Connor worked as a houseboy—a term used to describe a male domestic worker—for a family in Canyon Crest, where he could be found gardening one day and spreading beeswax on a glistening grand piano the next.
Despite forgoing the experience of living on campus, O'Connor connected with the UCR community through a variety of clubs and activities.
"I had moved around a lot as a child, so I was somewhat reserved and I didn't know a lot of people," O'Connor said. "I found UCR at that time was the right environment for me, because I got to know my professors and I became more open through my involvement in organizations such as the Model United Nations and the Young Democrats."
After graduating—including a fondly remembered commencement speech by Nobel Prize-winning chemist Linus Pauling—O'Connor joined the Army. His decision was spurred by his military upbringing and the desire to choose a different armed force to his brother, who had joined the Navy, and their father, a member of the Air Force. After completing basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and officer candidate school at Fort Benning, Ga., O'Connor spent a year in Vietnam, where he advised a Vietnamese battalion responsible for protecting the area to the west of Saigon. While he was there, his mother mailed him a note from a familiar name: UCR Professor Ron Loveridge, who would go on to become Riverside mayor.
"He wrote that he hoped everything was going well and for me to come home safely," O'Connor said. "That was quite something."
O'Connor completed his active service in the Army in 1971, receiving a Bronze Star for meritorious service. He came back to Riverside eager to start the next chapter of his life, but several unsuccessful interviews for jobs his heart wasn't into left him pondering his future. Recalling how much he'd enjoyed a stint as an instructor at Fort Benning, O'Connor returned to UCR to earn his teaching credential, which he completed in 1972 with support from the GI Bill. He later received his master's in education from UC San Diego.
O'Connor said his UCR education prepared him for a 30-year career in the Poway Unified School District in San Diego County as a high school teacher and advisor to many school clubs. Upon his retirement in 2004, he ran for the Fallbrook Union High School District Board of Education and served as a board member and president; he served two four-year terms and is currently completing a term on the Fallbrook Planning Group. He is a passionate advocate for the power of public education.
During his career, O'Connor completed summer programs with the National Endowment for the Humanities at San Diego State, UC San Diego, and the Hoover Institute/Clairemont Graduate School, where he met Connie. The couple married in 1977 and have two children.
O'Connor has kept in touch with the Highlander family, becoming a lifetime member of UCR's Alumni Association, donating books to the Rivera Library, and attending the Hays Press Enterprise Lecture and other events on campus. He also enjoyed being a member of a San Diego/Imperial County scholarship advisory committee at UCR.
The merit-based scholarship he endowed will help secure a bright future for students who may otherwise face financial obstacles in transferring to UCR.
"I know from my own personal experiences that education can be life-changing, but I have concerns about the amount of debt that many students face. Scholarships like the one I am supporting are one way to offset this," O'Connor said.
To learn more about planning a gift at UCR, and how your gift could make a similar impact to that of the O'Connor's, visit Planmygift.ucr.edu.
