Jeremiah O’Connor, SJ, was born in Dublin on April 10, 1841. His father died before he was born, and Jeremiah and his mother immigrated to Philadelphia when he was young. After high school he enrolled at Saint Joseph's College, Philadelphia. On July 30, 1860, O'Connor entered the Society of Jesus and began his novitiate in Frederick, Maryland. O’Connor began his regency at Loyola University in Maryland in 1863 and eventually transferred to Woodstock College in 1869. In 1874, O'Connor was ordained a priest.
In 1876, O'Connor went to Boston College, where he taught rhetoric and made a strong impression as a pulpit orator through his sermons at the College’s Church of the Immaculate Conception. He was appointed to replace Robert J. Fulton as the president of Boston College on January 11, 1880. During his presidency, the school magazine, The Stylus, was published for the first time in 1883. Also that year, the school's athletic association was created, which organized the first sports teams. On July 31, 1884, O'Connor was succeeded as president by Edward V. Boursaud. From 1884 on, O’Connor served as a priest in New York City, where he died on February 27, 1891.
