Thomas Lee Conner

Thomas L. Conner, 76, of Haslett, Michigan, passed away unexpectedly on June 22, 2016 at Sparrow Hospital, after a short illness. He is survived by Connie Page, his wife of 29 years, his sons Thomas A. Conner of Mountain View, California and Timothy P. Conner of Canton, Ohio, his daughter Emily Conner Babcock of Troy, Michigan, his sister, Sue Fujitani of San Francisco, California and his seven grandchildren. Please join us in celebrating Tom’s life on June 29, 2016 from 5:00-7:30pm at the MSU Union. Cocktails and snacks will be served. In lieu of flowers, you may contribute to the Ingham County Animal Control Shelter, Tom Conner Memorial Fund.

Tom was born in Portland, Oregon in 1939, the son of Samuel L. Conner and Gladyce Conner, and grew up in Ashland, Oregon, graduating from Ashland High School in 1958. He then attended Stanford University, where he received his bachelor’s degree in Sociology in 1962. He went directly to graduate school in the same discipline at Stanford, earning his PhD in 1966. He moved on to a professorship at Michigan State, where he had three separate terms as Associate Chairman of the Sociology Department and served as Department Chairman from 1999-2002.

Tom spent his entire professional career until his official retirement in 2012, as a Professor of Sociology at Michigan State University. At Michigan State he taught courses in research methods, social psychology and small groups and initially continued working on experiments in the Expectation States research program that was his focus at Stanford. In the 1990s his research increasingly emphasized the areas of health and well-being. After his retirement, he continued to do research and publish his findings. He is best known for his work in developing metrics and his final publication came in May, 2016. Notably, his post-retirement work on screening geriatric patients for cognitive and physical disabilities has been converted to a healthcare application to be used in Emergency Departments across the United States.

Tom was a truly remarkable man. He had boundless intellectual curiosity and was a voracious reader on a wide range of topics, always looking to engage in discussions with friends and online. He took up fly fishing and tying his own flies. He learned to kayak then helped teach introductory courses and rolling. He pursued bird photography and gave two presentations to the Capital Area Audubon Society. He was preparing a third on seabirds of the Shetland Islands when he passed. And he was currently learning about bug photography and posting on the Entomology Facebook page. He was a man who never stopped learning and sharing his knowledge.

Tom and his wife loved adventure travel, and took some amazing trips – kayaking from the Andes to the ocean in Chile, rafting down an Arctic river, helicopter cross-country skiing in Alberta, sailing the British Virgin Islands, and so many more adventures. He loved the outdoors and the solitude of the wilderness.

One of Tom’s other great passions was cats, and after retiring, he devoted many hours per week volunteering at the Ingham County Animal Control Shelter. He was known as the “cat guy” and worked to improve cat lives and increase adoptions. He also took many of the cat pictures used on their website. He loved his work at the Shelter.

Tom was an amazing person, thoughtful, intelligent, patient, curious, and fun. He had a wonderful sense of humor and a strong sense of social responsibility. He will be greatly missed as a husband, father, teacher, mentor, colleague, and advocate for humanitarian causes.