A York man’s unconventional obituary has gone viral online since its publication Wednesday.
“Irishman Dies from Stubbornness, Whiskey,” it begins.
Published on Seacoastonline, Chris Connors’ obituary is a glimpse at his full and adventurous life. He was 67 when he died last week.
“Anyone else fighting ALS and stage 4 pancreatic cancer would have gone quietly into the night, but Connors was stark naked drinking Veuve in a house full of friends and family as Al Green played from the speakers,” it reads. “The way he died is just like he lived: he wrote his own rules, he fought authority and he paved his own way. And if you said he couldn’t do it, he would make sure he could.”
Seacoastonline shared the post on Twitter, saying, “This family-submitted obituary is perhaps the most colorful we’ve ever received.” Strangers and friends shared the obituary on social media and signed the online guest book. Those who knew him praised his spirit, and those who did not know him wished they had.
“As much as people knew hanging out with him would end in a night in jail or a killer screwdriver hangover, he was the type of man that people would drive 16 hours at the drop of a dime to come see,” the obituary says. “He lived 1,000 years in the 67 calendar years we had with him because he attacked life; he grabbed it by the lapels, kissed it and swung it back onto the dance floor.”
The obituary, news reports and the website for a water safety fund that Connors founded describe his adventures.
Originally from Quincy, Mass., he was a Golden Gloves boxer. In his 20s, he saved a drowning child in the Atlantic and tried to sail around the world. In his 30s, he was stabbed while saving a woman from being mugged in New York City.
He made his career on Wall Street, and moved to Maine after his brother and best friends died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
In his 60s, he climbed to the base camp of Mount Everest and embarked on a 500-plus-mile bike trip to benefit injured veterans.
He helped establish a water rescue program at the York Fire Department, and near the end of his life, his family created a fund for a junior boating and water safety program in York.
Attempts to reach Connors’ family Wednesday were unsuccessful. The obituary describes his love for his three children and his wife, Emily Ayer Connors, who survive him. In lieu of flowers, the obituary asks readers to pay an open bar tab or make a donation to the Chris Connors Fund.
“Although he threw some of the most memorable parties during the greater half of a century, he would trade it all for a night in front of the fire with his family in Maine,” the obituary reads.
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