Doris Sherrill O'Connor

Doris Sherrill O’Connor, 94 of Palm City, Florida passed away October 8, 2021 in Palm City Florida. She was born in Natrona Heights, PA and spent her childhood in Barberton Ohio, graduating from Barberton High School in 1946. She earned her BS in Nursing from the University of Rochester in 1952 where she began her nursing career in Nursing Arts, Hospital Nursing and as Evening Supervisor. She worked at Harris Hospital in Fort Worth Texas in orthopedic nursing. She soon moved to Waterbury, Ct where she married George W. O’Connor is 1954. She continued her 35-year nursing career in Waterbury where she taught Pediatric Nursing at Waterbury Hospital. She worked in Public Health in Waterbury for six years, and then spent the next eighteen years as a college nurse at Mattatuck Community College (now Naugatuck Valley Community College), where she became an advocate for students with disabilities enabling their entrance to college and assisting with special programs which facilitated with their success.

She was preceded in death by her husband George in 2002. Her survivors include two sons, Scott, Nantucket, MA and William “Bill”, Cheshire, CT, daughter Sharon and husband Richard Poirier, and grandson Neal Poirier, New Hartford CT and several nieces, nephews and cousins.

She was a charter member of the Autism Society of Ct. which pioneered the recognition of the needs and education of children and adults with autism. She served as president of the Board of Directors of the Autism Society of CT which opened the first group home in Connecticut for people with autism in 1978. She retired in 1989 and she and George became snow-birds at Indian River Plantation in Stuart Florida. They loved to travel, visiting Ireland, England, Mexico, Canada and traveling throughout the United States. The both enjoyed photography. In 1993 they became Florida residents.

In addition to advocacy, her interests included playing bridge, oil painting, volunteering, computers, friends and family. She was a volunteer at Martin Memorial Hospital in Stuart, FL. She moved to Sandhill Cove in Palm City after George passed away in 2002. Always alert to the needs of people, she remained an advocate to many, providing health education and other assistance. She was a member of the Presbyterian Church of Palm City.

Burial will take place at North Cemetery in Woodbury CT at the convenience of the family.

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