* Msgr. William L. O’Connor; Founded ‘Boys Town of West’

Msgr. William L. O’Connor, 84, the founder of Hanna Boys Center in Northern California for troubled youth. O’Connor founded the center--known as the “Boys Town of the West”--in 1949, aiming to take in troubled boys from broken homes and make them productive members of society. O’Connor and his co-founder, Msgr. William Flanagan, won the support of Archbishop John Mitty in 1944 to find a home for orphaned and misguided boys after O’Connor and Flanagan discovered a rising tide of juvenile delinquency in the wake of World War II. The center quickly expanded, from serving 25 boys in 1945 in a Menlo Park rented house. Since its founding, Hanna has been home to 2,500 boys. O’Connor served as director until 1972, when he asked to be reassigned as associate director. He retired in 1984 and continued to live at the center until 1988, when he moved to the Nazareth House in Marin County after suffering a hip injury. In San Rafael on Monday.