The passing of Joseph O'Connell
I got the sad news today that Joseph T. O'Connell, professor of South Asian Religions at St. Michael's College University of Toronto for more than 30 years, scholar of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, a long-time friend of mine, a well-wisher and supporter of the Hare Krishna movement since its arrival in Toronto, died last Friday in New York of a massive brain hemorrhage. Though I met Joe first in 1971 when a new Hare Krishna devotee, he became an especially good friend when I was doing my post-doc at UofT in 1992-1994. We were neighbors in the West Annex during that time, living just across the park from each other, and our families often broke bread together. He and his wife Kathy helped us make the transition to Toronto in many ways. Joseph was one of the earlier scholars to work on Chaitanya Vaishnavism at Harvard where he did his PhD in the 1950s on the social aspects of the Chaitanya movement. When Krishna consciousness came to Toronto in 1969, he was probably the only person in...