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JAMES L. CONNOR: Golf Paved His Way

 

You always knew the precise moment when James L. Connor had decided that he liked you. He gave you a nickname. His wife, Jamie, was "Little." A brother-in- law was "Hitter." His youngest son, Jack, 4, rated two nicknames, "Mooshie" and "Buddha." His mother, Ruth Ann, was simply "R.A."

"If he had a nickname for you," his sister, Cathy Dodge, said, "he loved you and that was his way of expressing it."

Looking back, Mrs. Dodge said, it is now clear that golf, one of his great passions, was a "guiding force" in hislife -- the providential ingredient that nudged him in the direction of both his future wife and a successful career in investment banking. By caddying at the North Hempstead Country Club he came to the attention of a Bear Stearns executive who gave him his start in the business. And by attending the College of William and Mary, where he played on the golf team, he met his wife.

Mr. Connor, 38, of Summit, N.J., was a partner at Sandler O'Neill & Partners on the 104th floor of 2 World Trade Center. But he loved to take his clients for a round of golf. Sometimes he even gave them nicknames.

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From "Profiles in Grief" of The New York Times