John H. "Jack" Connelly

John H. “Jack” Connelly passed away peacefully at home in Salem, Massachusetts on Saturday, January 10, 2026. He was 86 years old. He is survived by his beloved wife, Denice Brait.

Jack was predeceased by his elder sister and only sibling, Jeanne Connelly Sears of Baltimore, Maryland, who passed peacefully at her home just 28 hours before him. He was also predeceased by his parents, John H. “Harold” Connelly and Cora Blanchette Connelly.

Jack is survived by four children whom he shares with their mother, Marjorie Calnek Connelly: Lisa Connelly Cook of Worcester, MA; Sheila Connelly and her husband, Ping Yip, of Salem, MA; Dennis J. Connelly and his partner, Diane Sullivan of NH; and Thomas H. Connelly and his partner, John Reidy Treworgy of MA. He is also survived by four grandchildren: Alice Manfrida and her husband Stephen, Kathryn Budney and her husband Brian, Paul Jacob Connelly and Anna Elizabeth Connelly, and five great-grandchildren, along with his former wife Marjorie and many nieces and nephews.

Jack grew up in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, following an early move from nearby Springfield. He graduated from Springfield Technical High School and served in the Army Reserves, training at Fort Dix in New Jersey. He continued his education at Fairfield University and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and graduated from the University of Hartford.

He worked for many years in the developing field of computer business applications, beginning in the 1960s. In the early 1970s, while raising his family in West Springfield, Massachusetts, Jack helped build Search Computer Systems, an early computer-based startup in East Hartford, Connecticut, serving as its senior technical advisor. The company worked with the early Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) computer, PDP-11, that relied on paper tape for data storage. Jack later remarked that the company was ahead of its time, entering the market just before sufficient funding was available to scale that kind of business.

After Search Computers, Jack moved his family to Holden, Massachusetts, where he joined Norton Company in Worcester as a Systems Analyst in the field of Management Information Systems (MIS), a discipline that predates modern Information Technology (IT), eventually leading the department. A resident of Holden from 1975 to 1986, Jack served on the board of the Holden Municipal Light Department.

As the MIS field continued to grow, Jack brought his skills to DEC in Maynard, Massachusetts. His expertise was data warehousing and data management, a growing field which synthesized IT infrastructure with the business strategy focus of MIS. In an era when search commands had to be exact, he was an early proponent of using more natural, human-centered language to anticipate how people might search for information without knowing the precise syntax of the underlying data. His longtime friend John Holmgren, whom he met at Search, said recently, “Jack was viewed as technically competent, easy to work with, and reliable, and he was loved by both staff and customers for these attributes.”

Jack had many interests. He loved several genres of music, including jazz, opera, folk, Irish, and bluegrass. He loved old cars and going to car shows. When he spotted a car from 30s, 40s, or 50s, he could always name the year, make, and model from just a glance, remembering the details and minor changes from year to year. He also took classes in oil painting and completed several oil-on-canvas works reproducing pieces by famous artists. He always kept a woodworking shop in his home, where he built a dollhouse for his children along with much of the furniture inside it. He built and flew kites with them, made toys and pedal-powered go-carts, and repaired nearly anything that broke. He was endlessly curious, capable, and generous with his time and skills.

After moving to Salem with his wife Denice, Jack volunteered to help repair and maintain the historic tall ship Friendship of Salem, a full-scale replica of a late 18th century East Indiaman class merchant vessel. It was built for the National Park Service and is berthed in Salem Harbor. Jack loved boats, especially old wooden ones. He restored several wooden canoes from the early 1900s, including models originally built by Old Town and B.N. Morris, returning them to their original cedar-and-canvas splendor. To Jack, however, these were not museum pieces, but working boats meant for paddling and fishing.

Jack was a proud member of the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association. He also enjoyed whitewater canoeing and participated in many excursions organized by the Appalachian Mountain Club, often braving icy Massachusetts rivers in early spring. In keeping with his love of boating, he taught foundational chart-navigation classes for the United States Power Squadrons and, in later years, served as a volunteer docent aboard the Friendship of Salem.

Jack and Denice enjoyed traveling together, with memorable trips to Italy, France, and Ireland. At home in Salem, Jack loved to sit and admire the flower gardens in the urban oasis Denice created.

Jack lived a long and productive life with Type 1 diabetes for 58 years. He volunteered as a participant in diabetes research conducted by Dr. Denise Faustman at Massachusetts General Hospital, becoming one of her most successful long-term study participants. Having developed the disease in an era with limited treatment options, he remained an outlier of success. In the last decade of his life, Jack also faced Parkinson’s disease, which proved more challenging to manage in its later stages, yet he met it with the same quiet resilience that defined his life.

Jack will be remembered for his intellectual curiosity, technical skill, quiet generosity, and love of learning. He found satisfaction in understanding how things worked and in sharing that knowledge with others. He leaves behind a legacy of craftsmanship, service, and thoughtful problem-solving that will be remembered by all who knew him.

Jack’s quality of life during his last years was greatly improved and extended by the love and care of his wife Denice. They shared 28 years of marriage.

Burial and services will be private.