Donald Connors, Fordham Literature Expert Dies at 92

Donald F. Connors, professor emeritus of English at Fordham University, where he taught for 47 distinguished years, died Nov. 27 in his home in Scarsdale. He was 92. Mr. Connors, a recognized expert on the literature of the American Revolution, taught at Fordham’s Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses from 1931 to 1978. The author of “Thomas Morton,” considered the definitive work on the 17th-century New England writer, he co-authored five textbooks, including “Poems for the Grades” a compilation of poems used in Catholic schools during the 1940s and 1950s. Mr. Connors was a graduate of Fordham College and received his law degree from Harvard University. He had master’s and doctoral degrees in comparative literature from Columbia University. He was a member of the New York Academy of Public Education and board of directors of the Catholic Poetry Society of America. He is survived by two daughters, Harriette DeLuca of Parsippany, N.J. and Helen Bates of Somers, and five sons, Donald F. Jr., of Summit, N.J.; Thomas, of West Chester, Pa.; Michael, of Scarsdale; Edward, of White Plains, and Christopher, of Woodland Hills, Calif