In memoriam
Professor John O’Connor (7 March 1934-8 September 2024)
BE NUI, MA DPhil Oxf, PhD Camb, DSc UCD
It is with great sadness that the Master and Fellows of St Peter’s College Oxford report the death of our Emeritus Fellow Professor John (‘JJ’) O’Connor on 8 September 2024.
John was born in Dublin in 1934 and was educated by the Augustinian Friars at New Ross, County Wexford. He took first-class honours in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering from University College, Dublin in 1956, then spent two years as a Graduate Apprentice with British Nylon Spinners (later ICI Fibres) at Pontypool. He then went on to a PhD at Cambridge, writing his thesis on the mechanics of fretting, The Transmission of Oscillating Forces Between Bodies in Contact.
In 1962, he took up his first academic post at the University of Minnesota (USA) as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Engineering and Mechanics. In 1964, he joined the University of Oxford as a University Lecturer in Engineering Science. That same year, he was appointed as St Peter’s first Tutorial Fellow in Engineering. At the time, Engineering at Oxford was a modest and developing enterprise, with an annual intake of just 60 undergraduates (compared to more than 180 today) and an academic staff of 15. He officially took up his appointment at St Peter’s in 1965, becoming just the eighth engineer to hold a tutorial fellowship at an Oxford college.
It was in Oxford that John met his wife Gemma, an Irish mystery writer. Our thoughts are with Gemma, their children Oscar, Emily and Simon, and their families.
The Oxford Knee
In 1966, John struck up what would become a lifelong collaborative friendship with the orthopaedic surgeon John Goodfellow, resulting in a major interdisciplinary project that has now impacted hundreds of thousands of lives globally. Their revolutionary design of a new development in knee-replacement surgery, the Oxford Meniscal Knee, or ‘the Oxford Knee’, was based on the natural menisci of the human knee (the two cartilage elements between the surfaces of the femur and tibia), making possible a smaller and partial replacement, a far-less invasive procedure than a total knee replacement. The first operation using the Oxford Knee took place in 1976, and within 40 years more than 650,000 Oxford Knees had been implanted in patients around the world. At the bottom of this story, you can learn more about the Oxford Knee in John’s own words.
John was Vandervell Fellow and Tutor in Engineering at St Peter’s College from 1964 to 2001 and following his retirement in 2001 was made Emeritus Fellow. He was appointed Research Director of the Oxford Orthopaedic Engineering Centre in 1991 and was made Professor in 1996. In 2018, University College Dublin presented him with an honorary Degree of Doctor of Science.
You can leave a tribute to John and learn more about his funeral arrangements here. There will be a memorial at St Peter's College, the details of which will be shared in due course.
Memories of John
Prof Tom Adcock (Engineering Science, 2001), Tutorial Fellow in Engineering
‘John retired the year before I came up to St Peter’s as an undergraduate, so I sadly missed him as a tutor. However, since I became a fellow I have met many of his former students and it is clear that he was both revered and loved by them. I have heard many tales of his teaching, and his relaxed and gentle—yet thorough and exacting—tutorials.
I was lucky enough to get to know John when I returned to college as Tutorial Fellow in Engineering in 2012. He was kind and generous with his time. I value every conversation I shared with him.
When John retired from College, he set up a fund to support fellows’ research expenses in perpetuity. Many of us have benefited from John’s generosity which has allowed us to disseminate our research and opened up new research opportunities.
John was a wonderful man who made our world a better place and transformed many lives. But he did it all with a smile and a gentle laugh. He was modest about his achievements but always willing to share his wisdom. His Oxford Knee changed the lives of many and continues to be used today—my stepfather received an Oxford Knee four years ago. John was a great St Peter’s man—we are proud of him and grateful for his many contributions to College life over the last 60 years.’
Tara Glen (Engineering Science, 1988)
‘Like many of John’s former students, I owe him so much. Not only for the opportunity to study at St Peter’s, which gave me such a great springboard into my varied career path, but also for his patience in tutorials where he literally taught me how to think and solve problems in a way that I still rely on today.
John will be remembered for his softly spoken way, which exuded such wisdom and experience; his encouragement to be curious, to find solutions; and his wonderful, Irish joie de vivre.
The attendance by decades of former students at the annual College Engineering Dinner is a testament to the very high regard in which we all held John. Each year we craved a chance to catch up and reminisce with John, whose memory of events and former students was crystal clear. He will be sorely missed. My thoughts are with his family, of whom he was so proud.’
Phil Wood (Engineering Science, 1973)
'John was the tutor of my year, 1973, and was very popular with his students. He had the ability to work with us to bring out our best engineering insights but always with good humour and a sense of real friendship. His work on the Oxford Knee is a great credit to him and to St. Peter’s College. He and Gemma invited us to their home in Summertown each year and we felt very comfortable and welcome in a busy household adorned with Gemma’s creative touch.'
David Brigginshaw (Engineering Science, 1971)
'It doesn’t bear thinking about that our last tutorial together was just over 50 years ago. Since then, although we have met in person precious few times I feel that he has always been in mind. His calm, patient, methodical approach to problem-solving, combined with his tremendous intellect, has stayed with me and been a role model I have tried to emulate throughout my own life and career (without the same intellectual capability I should add). He was a wonderful talented man, by whom I was so fortunate and honoured to have been tutored. The periodic Engineers’ gatherings that he and Gemma hosted provided some of the fondest memories from my time at the College, and my thoughts are with her and the rest of JJ’s family.'
Steve Shaw (Engineering Science, 1966)
'He was, indeed, a splendid man, a great tutor and a wonderful host of weekend parties at his home, together with Gemma and their family. I was, together with Phil Wilkes, Paul Burden, Martin Guest and Ian Collins, JJ's first selected cohort and I hope and trust that our respective futures gave him some degree of satisfaction and pride. We are collectively exploring ways in which we might be able to honour his name in a concrete way.'
Clive Rutherford (Engineering Science, 1965)
‘I was part of JJ’s first intake in 1965 (he arrived at the same time, and had not actually chosen our cohort).
He was a very thoughtful, calm and patient man. I remember him trying to go through a tutorial question which he had set and which I had failed to solve, and in very few lines he would say, “There you are—a very elegant solution.”
He was an elegant man with a great sense of humour and (with Gemma) a wonderful host (and hostess).
It has been a privilege to have studied under him and to have known him for many subsequent years.’
The Oxford Knee, in John's own words
Great Medical Discoveries: Great Medical Discoveries: The Development of the Oxford Knee
'Orthopaedic Engineering', by John O'Connor (College Record, 1999)
Notes
John’s biography has been taken from the profile printed in the 1995 issue of the College Record and from this profile on the Oxford Knee website.