Obituary of Joan Aires O'Connor

Mary Joan Aires O'Connor Joan Aires O’Connor of South Orange, NJ, died peacefully at St. Barnabas Hospital on the evening of November 3, 2017 at the age of 95. She was surrounded by family and lots of love. Even though she endured several hospitalizations this year, she had been in decent health, talking on the phone and sitting up for visits with family in her home until the last few days of her life. Born May 13, 1922, Joan lived through one of the most incredible centuries of change the world has ever seen, and stayed strong, active, and engaged with family, friends and her community until the end of her life. Mary Joan Aires was the daughter of Frank and Julia Aires. She was born in Philadelphia, PA, the oldest of ten children. After graduating from St. Agnes Academy, Rockville Centre, NY, she attended Kaupert Secretarial Junior College and Columbia University Joan spent some of her formative years in Westfield, NJ. Her family then moved to Nutley, NJ, where they bought their first home at 41 The Enclosure in 1946. It immediately became a buzzing beehive of social and community activity. Joan’s mother and father had met in Washington DC where they were both working in the new telecommunications industry to help America win World War I. This brief wartime patriotic commitment led her parents to a 57-year marriage commitment and her father to a lifetime career working for Western Electric and AT&T. When Joan decided to become a pioneering career woman at an early age, it was no surprise that she went to work at the telephone company too. Beginning in 1943, Joan worked on and off at various incarnations of telephone-related companies, including Western Electric and AT&T, before retiring in 1992. May, 1992 was a momentous month for Joan. She turned 70 years old, retired from AT&T, and graduated from Keane College with a BA in History. Joan was a leader in the telephone company’s volunteer group where she served as President of the North Jersey Chapter of the New Outlook Telephone Pioneers. These volunteers took on environmental initiatives, literacy projects, support for military families and delighted in making holiday toys for underprivileged children, among many other worthy activities. Joan married on January 20, 1951 at St. Mary’s Church, Nutley, NJ. She had six children in 9 years from 1951 to 1960 and raised her family in Montclair, New Monmouth, Nutley, East Orange, and Orange, before moving to South Orange in 1968, where she made her home for the rest of her life. She was always a volunteer, often for multiple organizations simultaneously. She was active in her youth in the Genevieve Brady Volunteers, the Carroll Club working with orphans, and the Catholic Daughters of the Americas, where she served in leadership positions. Later she served as a Girl Scout leader in Nutley and a Boy Scout Leader in South Orange. She was the Team Parent for the Columbia High School championship volleyball team in the 1970’s for both her daughter Betsy and her future daughter-in-law Michele. She was a strong believer in education, especially for women. That included her work in support of Marylawn of the Oranges Academy for its historical mission to prepare, motivate, and challenge young women, intellectually and morally, to assume their roles in society according to Catholic tradition and in the founding spirit of the Sisters of Charity of New Jersey. She was an active member of Our Lady of Sorrows Church, and a past president of its Parish Council and its Rosary Society. Joan was the Catholic Laywoman of the Year for Our Lady of Sorrows Rosary Society in 2006. She womaned the Food Pantry for decades helped by her O’Connor grandchildren. Joan believed in lifelong learning. She loved history and reading great books. She had started her college education at Columbia in her youth but was not able to complete a degree after getting married and starting her family. Late in life, she enrolled in classes filled with much younger students, and took her course work seriously even in her late sixties Joan loved to travel and often talked of her long trip through Europe in 1950. Later, she traveled with church groups to Israel and to Ireland. In the 1980s and 90s, she traveled with her children back through Europe and then climbed half way up the Great Wall of China. As one of ten siblings herself, and with six of her own children, and 11 grandchildren, and a plethora of cousins, nieces, nephews, grand-nieces, and grand-nephews, she traveled regularly to weddings, graduations, and family celebrations of all types all over America. As one of her grandchildren said, “Perhaps Joan was proudest of her role as a loving grandmother. She doted on all of her grandchildren with tremendous love and care. She never missed a wedding, a graduation, a birthday, or any family celebration, even as it got harder for her to travel in recent years. She will be missed incredibly by all of her family members, but especially by us, her grandchildren, whom she loved so much.” She is predeceased by her son, Kevin O’Connor and by her siblings Judy Farquhar, William Aires, Alice Gould, Gerald Aires, John Aires, and her sister-in-law Alice Aires. She is survived by her children and their spouses: Julie O’Connor (Dan Burstein) of Weston, CT; Cynthia O’Connor (Rick Porter) of Hopewell, NJ; Maureen O’Connor (Alex Miljkovic) of New York, NY; Terrance O’Connor (Michele) of South Orange, NJ; and Elizabeth DeTurk (Ken) of Yucaipa, CA; her three sisters, Barbara Aires, SC of Jersey City, NJ; Cathy Cassell (Ollan) of Indianapolis, IN; and Dorothy Fitts (Tom) of Oxford, MS; her brother, Frank Aires of Parker, CO; her sister-in-law Jean Aires of Wayne NJ; and her eleven grandchildren, Sydney, Lauren, David, Tara, Samantha, Carrick, Dylan, Kiel, Devon, Morgan and Catherine. Joan will missed by her many nieces, nephews and cousins, but especially by: Tim and Mary Aires, Lee Anne Aires and Ed Kirwan, Susan Black, Tommy Owens, Pat and Tom Duff, Ed and Andrea Duff, and Alice Foreman. We invite Family and Friends to join us in Celebration of Joan’s Life: Visitation: Friday, November 10, 2017 from 4 to 8 PM at Preston Funeral Home, 153 South Orange Ave., South Orange NJ, Funeral Mass: Saturday, November 11, 2017 at 10 AM at Our Lady of Sorrows Church, 217 Prospect St., South Orange, NJ. Burial: Following Funeral Mass at Immaculate Conception Cemetery, 712 Grove St., Upper Montclair, NJ. In lieu of flowers, please consider a contribution in memory of Joan Aires O'Connor to: Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth, 2 Convent Road, Convent Station, NJ 07961-0476. Donations may also be made at: https://supportscnj.org/donate. For more information or to send condolences, please visit prestonfuneralhome.net