Jody Connor with his Gulf of Maine Visionary award in 2009.
Jody was well-known and highly respected as a limnologist, educator, innovator, and motivator. Starting in his youth as a champion water skier on New Hampshire’s large lakes, to working at marinas fixing boats, to bringing back Kezar Lake from the brink of extreme water quality degradation—lakes were in his blood from early on.
His work and contributions are far reaching, and extend from the surface waters of New Hampshire, throughout North America and across the globe. Jody’s work with lakes and his commitment to their protection and restoration made him one of the most respected limnologists in the field by his peers and the thousands of citizens and volunteers he encountered, even though the man himself was humble.
For the last 20 years, Jody was the Department of Environmental Services’ Limnology Center Director (he started with the agency in the late 1970s). Jody was instrumental in creating many New Hampshire freshwater programs: the Exotic Species Program, the Volunteer Lake Assessment Program, the Beach Inspection Program and the Public Bathing Facility Program, among others. Jody was also the driving force behind the Comprehensive Shoreland Protection Program and Comprehensive Shoreland Protection Act being enacted into law in 1991. He also wrote legislation to ban phosphorus from laundry and dishwashing detergents in New Hampshire to further protect the surface waters he lived to protect and created the Interactive Lake Ecology Program for schools in New Hampshire that has now been implemented in several other countries as well. In his unwavering pursuit to protect public health, Jody initiated one of the first cyanobacteria monitoring programs at beaches in the country.
Jody dedicated his life and his career to protect and restore the beautiful natural resources that New Hampshire is so fortunate enough to have. He will long be remembered by many as a true mentor and friend. Countless careers were launched and thousands of volunteers were mobilized to protect natural resources thanks to the vision, guidance, mentoring, and unselfish dissemination of knowledge and experience that Jody embodied.
When asked shortly before his death about his unbelievable influence on so many people and the natural environment, Jody responded with his typical humility by saying; “The best way I know I have done my job is when I see my employees in the news or see all the projects they are working on. I feel like a proud father who has helped make the environment at least somewhat better than when I started.”
Shortly after the news of his passing was announced in local media outlets in New Hampshire, a long-time friend and colleague shared the following perspective on Jody. “He was everything good with none of the bad: knowledgeable, dedicated, unselfish, caring, mentoring, and hard-working. He never held on to knowledge or considered it to be power. He wanted to give everything of himself. Many fear doing that because they think it will diminish them—but the way Jody lived and worked proved that it made everyone around him a better person and him a great one.”
In a most fitting gesture, the GOMC recognized Jody’s body of work in 2009 with a Gulf of Maine Visionary award.
When three of his New Hampshire colleagues presented him with the award, besides citing all his accomplishments enumerated above, they said, “Jody is a truly beautiful person who just gives and gives without ever asking for anything in return. He is the foundation of so many careers, projects, and programs that have led to the restoration and protection of countless natural resources in New Hampshire, the Gulf of Maine Watershed, and beyond.”
Jody leaves his wife of 36 years, Patricia, three children, four grandchildren, his parents and a sister. He also leaves numerous friends and colleagues in New Hampshire state government and state governments across the nation, on the federal level, and within many NGOs.
