![]() “I learned how to read before going to school by reading newspapers at home,” Connolly said in an interview with Clark in 2021. He was a respected figure in the newsroom, a go-to colleague for reporters in need of feedback or a fact. His newspaper career exposed him to a range of topics, from crime to politics. He later taught news writing at Assumption and Clark University. His ties to Worcester are traced to his years at Assumption University, then Assumption College, from where he graduated in 1977. ![]() He spent six years as a spokesman for the state Department of Revenue before finishing his career with the Worcester County District Attorney Office, where he spent 14 years. ![]() I’m going to miss him," Shaun Connolly posted on Facebook.Ĭonnolly spent much of his professional career as a reporter and columnist for the Telegram & Gazette. He could roast you while making you laugh and knew how to fix any situation. He was larger than life and the sweetest guy. No one could shoot a basketball like him. He was so smart and the best storyteller I ever came across. With the news of his passing, many hearts were broken.Ĭonnolly, 68, leaves his wife of 43 years, Donna two sons, Shaun and Mark and a grandson, Davin Moses Connolly. “At the end, he tells a sold-out Yankee Stadium that despite his fatal disease, he considered himself ““the luckiest man on the face of the earth!” I can’t go that far, but I’m certainly lucky and blessed to have so many caring relatives and friends in my life.”Ĭonnolly ended the post with the words, “Love to all” followed by a heart emoji.Ĭonnolly, a basketball star in his native Pittsfield who made Worcester his second hometown, died May 3 after a courageous battle with ALS. “Still a great movie,” Connolly mused on a posting on his personal Facebook page. Usually moved to tears prior to his diagnosis, the sentiment of Gehrig’s speech came home to Connolly and he felt connected to Cooper playing Gehrig. For this would be the first time watching this classic film, this classic story, since being diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease (or ALS). Connolly was channel surfing and came across one of his favorite movies, “The Pride of the Yankees,” starring Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig.ĭespite seeing the film many times in his lifetime and knowing the film’s historic speech by heart, Connolly was compelled to stop. He will be a significant presence in our lives.On March 9, Timothy J. But he will be there every time we do that or go to one of those places. And that’s the dream that is not going to be realized. You have those images of a group of friends sitting on the dock or their porch in their 80s, watching their grandkids and telling stories. “He is my brother, closer and more deeply than anybody else,” Ken Crawford said. Ken Crawford is now the senior pastor at Central Christian Church of Dallas, Texas. He loved Christmas music, coffee and bringing people together - he was “always able to make the table bigger,” said Ken Crawford, who was Thornton’s fraternity brother at Texas Tech University in the late ‘80s. In everyday life, he was a foodie, Ken Crawford said, and followed the latest food trends reported on in the Star-Telegram. He climbed Kilimanjaro, rafted on the Nile River and went on a safari in Zanzibar. Thornton and his wife backpacked in Denali for about a week when they were in their 20s and had a close brush with a family of grizzlies. He loved to travel, his friend Ken Crawford - of no relation to Amylyn Crawford - said.
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