Claretian Father Raymond E. O’Connor, 81, died Aug. 17 in Park Ridge.

Born in Chicago, Father O’Connor attended Claretian seminaries and Catholic University of America before being ordained in 1964.

He had brief assignments at Immaculate Heart of Mary and St. Francis of Assisi parishes before serving as assistant vocation director at the Claretian House of Studies in Washington, D.C., in 1966. He also ministered in New York, Virginia, Missouri and Georgia.

He returned to Chicago in 2005 and became the director of the National Shrine of St. Jude at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish.  In 2008, he retired and became a resident of the Claretian community in Oak Park, but continued as codirector of the shrine for another 10 years. In 2019, he moved to the Sheridan at Park Ridge nursing home, his final place of residence.