Basil O'Connor
Basil O'Connor (born January 8, 1892 in Taunton, Massachusetts , † March 9, 1972 in Phoenix, Arizona ) was an American lawyer and philanthropist. Together with US President Franklin D. Roosevelt , he established two foundations for rehabilitation for people with polio and for research into the prevention and cure of poliomyelitis. From 1944 to 1949 he was Chairman and President of the American Red Cross and from 1945 to 1950 Chairman of the League of Red Cross Societies .
Life
Lawyer and businessman
Basil O'Connor studied at Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1915. He then worked for a year in New York at Cravath and Henderson and then for three years for Streeter & Holmes in Boston . In 1919 he set up his own law firm in New York. In the early 1920s he met Franklin D. Roosevelt and became his legal advisor. In 1924 they opened a joint law firm that lasted until Roosevelt was elected US President in 1933. From 1934 O'Connor was then senior partner of the law firm O'Connor & Farber . In addition, he was at times director of various companies, for example the New England Fuel Oil Corporation in the 1920s and the American Reserve Insurance Corporation and the West Indies Sugar Corporation in the 1940s .
Philanthropic activities
Franklin D. Roosevelt had suffered from leg paralysis since 1921, which was considered to be poliomyelitis - according to recent research it was the then little known Guillain-Barré syndrome - and was in a wheelchair for most of the time. In 1926 he founded the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation with Basil O'Connor . The foundation, which was renamed the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation after Roosevelt's death, raised funds to help people with poliomyelitis. While Roosevelt himself initially assumed the presidency of the foundation, but gave it to O'Connor after his election as governor of New York in 1928, O'Connor was initially treasurer when it was founded. Ten years later, they both created the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis , which focused on advancing research into the prevention and treatment of poliomyelitis. O'Connor took over the management of this foundation. The National Foundation became known, among other things, through the March of Dimes fundraising campaign , during which a radio campaign called on Americans to donate a dime , i.e. ten US cents. On April 12, 1955, exactly ten years after Roosevelt's death, the National Foundation announced the development of a polio vaccine by Jonas Salk . The foundation itself has been called the March of Dimes since 1979 .
From 1944 to 1947 O'Connor also took over the position of Chairman of the American Red Cross at the suggestion of Roosevelt, succeeding Norman Davis . He headed the two largest non-profit organizations of the time in the United States. From 1947 to 1949 he was President of the American Red Cross and from 1945 to 1950, succeeding the Swiss Johannes von Muralt, Chairman of the League of Red Cross Societies. During his tenure, the American Red Cross established the National Blood Program . Public health programs have also been a focus of his work. The Swedish lawyer Emil Sandström succeeded him as Chairman of the League of Red Cross Societies .
After working for the Red Cross, he returned to his work for the two poliomyelitis foundations, which he headed until his death. In terms of donations, his work has been exceptionally successful compared to other foundations. Under his leadership, the National Foundation succeeded in collecting around 66.9 million US dollars in 1954, with 100,000 new cases. By comparison, US $ 11.3 million were donated to the prevention and treatment of heart disease in the same year, out of around ten million cases. In 1958, O'Connor received the Lasker Foundation's Mary Woodard Lasker Award for Public Service for his efforts to fight poliomyelitis .
The following undated quote is likely from Basil O'Connor:
- "The world cannot continue to wage war like physical giants and to seek peace like intellectual pygmies."
- "The world cannot go on waging wars like physical giants and seeking peace like intellectual dwarfs."
Remarks
- ↑ His full birth name was "Daniel Basil O'Connor". However, he dropped his first name after moving to New York because, according to tradition, there were too many entries under the name "Daniel O'Connor" in the New York phone book.
literature
- David M. Oshinsky: Polio - An American Story - The Crusade That Mobilized the Nation Against the 20th Century's Most Feared Disease. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York 2005, ISBN 0-19-515294-8
- Timothy Takaro: The Man in the Middle. In: Dartmouth Medicine. 29 (1) / 2004. DMS Publications, pp. 52-57; Available online as a PDF file, approx. 390KB
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | O'Connor, Basil |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American lawyer and philanthropist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 8, 1892 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Taunton , Massachusetts |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 9, 1972 |
| Place of death | Phoenix, Arizona |