O'Connor, Lillian

Board member of the World Union of Catholic Women's Organizations (WUCWO) who served as vice-president (1970-1974) and treasurer (1974-1979); also an educational consultant of the United States Agency for International Development.

The second daughter of Dr. and Mrs. William F. O'Connor, Lillian was born on January 15, 1904, in Baring, Mo. A graduate of Webster College in St. Louis (B.A. 1925) and Columbia University (M.A. 1937, Ph.D. 1952), O'Connor taught in private and public schools in New Jersey and New York. In 1953, she was awarded a Fulbright to teach English in the Philippines. She remained there until 1957, when she transferred to Ethiopia as an educational consultant to the U.S. Agency for International Development. She was an adviser to the Nigerian Ministry of Education (1962-1964) and later an education specialist monitoring compliance with the Civil Rights Act for the Office of Equal Education Opportunities. She retired in 1970, and died in Maryland in 1984.

O'Connor helped found and later served as a secretary and presidentof the New York City Speech Association and was vice-president of the Eastern Public Speaking Conference . The author of Pioneer Women Orators (1952), she was an active member of the World Union of Catholic Women's Organizations and a lifelong champion of the rights of women and minorities.