All in the
UM Family
O'Connors donate
$1 million to center
Ten days after graduating from UM in 1951, Nancy Fields - armed with degrees in drama and
English - boarded a train in Missoula bound for New York City. From there she sailed for
Ireland, where her husband-to-be awaited her. They married a few weeks later. Her groom
happened to be a guy named Carroll O'Connor, who later found fame for his television roles
in "All in the Family" and "In the Heat of the Night." Carroll had
completed part of his undergraduate studies at UM before returning to Missoula to earn a
master's degree in speech in 1956.
"I didn't feel like I would become attached to (Missoula)," he said.
But both O'Connors did become attached, so much in fact that they recently donated $1
million to UM's Center for the Rocky Mountain West, a regional studies and public policy
institute. Nancy said the Sept. 8 ceremony renaming the center in their honor had special
significance because it was held at the Old Milwaukee Station - a former train depot -
where she had started her journey to rendezvous with Carroll so many years before.
The O'Connors made their generous gift during the University's Capital Campaign, which
ended in 1997, to help match a challenge grant from the National Endowment for the
Humanities. The grant will support the center's work in the Rocky Mountain West's seven
states and two Canadian provinces.
"I hope the study of the culture here will produce things of value to the whole
world," Carroll said. "I see this center as a hub that other disciplines will
see and join - to do things that UM will be known for."
Besides attending the ceremony naming the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West,
Carroll found time to speak with UM fine arts and journalism students during his Montana
visit. The 75-year-old actor, director and screenwriter - and winner of five Emmys -
regaled art and drama students with a lecture about the nature of art.
"To have art, you have to have the intellectual intent," he said. "Art
is a well-considered thing with a purpose. If you know your art, and you do it well, you
can never be bad."
He said "All in the Family" was art because it was written with the
intellectual intent of creating a satire - one that poked fun at society's morals, mores
and ideas of white superiority.
He told students it wasn't easy trying to break into show business in the early 1960s.
"I couldn't get arrested on Broadway," Carroll said. "I couldn't even
play an Irishman - they would hire a Lithuanian or something. Nancy supported us in those
days."
Carroll's art finally started paying for itself when he landed a few movie roles. He
had the students' rapt attention when describing some of the famous folks he worked with
over the years.
"I met a guy named O.J. Simpson working on a picture," Carroll said. "He
was a nice young fella' ... he did it, though!"
He lectured journalism students about the need for ethics and restraint in their chosen
profession and to respect privacy. He warned that a tabloid style of journalism was
starting to permeate the entire business, and he believes journalists should avoid
reporting details of private sex lives, such as President Clinton's.
At UM O'Connor was an associate editor for the Kaimin.
The O'Connors plan to continue their strong ties with UM. Carroll said he is interested
in what UM teaches and doesn't teach, especially in the realm of communications. He said
he wouldn't be adverse to teaching an occasional theater class - perhaps getting some of
his star friends in Hollywood to videoconference with UM classrooms.
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