Connelly, O. C.

O.C. Connelly was the Local Reindeer Superintendent, Bureau of Indian Affairs, for Saint Lawrence Island from 1938 to 1940. He and his wife, Ruth, also served as the schoolteachers at the village of Savoonga, where they were stationed. Bill, their young son, lived with them. Other U.S. Government employees on the island at the time included the nurse, Ms. Leake, Gambell schoolteachers Mr. and Mrs. Ted Hinckley, and Dr. Alexander M. Leighton, M.D. The Local Superintendent of the reindeer program was the official government representative on the island, responsible for supervising the annual reindeer roundup and harvest, supervising the native-run cooperative store, and teaching at the village school. O.C. Connelly and his son Bill left Savoonga in November of 1940. They took the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter "Haida" to Nome, flew to Anchorage on a Mirow Air Service plane, and then sailed on the S.S. Yukon from Seward to Seattle. They then took a train to Chicago and later visited friends and family in Washington, D.C., Maryland, Ohio, and Indiana.