Michael Dan O’Connor

Date of Death: September 11, 2026

Service Details

In accordance with family wishes, cremation will be conducted; a celebration of his life will be held at a later date.

Obituary Notice

Michael Dan O’Connor, 80, a retired attorney who practiced in the greater Kalamazoo area, passed away Friday, September 11, 2026, at Three Rivers Health Hospital.

He was born March 22, 1946, in Amarillo, Texas, the son of Daniel and Dorothy (Winningham) O’Connor, and graduated from University High School in Bloomington, Indiana, with the Class of 1964. He played baseball, basketball and football in high school, was named MVP in baseball, and won the Al Herman Award, given to the best all-around athlete.

Some of his happiest summers were spent near Lubbock on a large cotton and soybean farm owned by his aunt and uncle, Jane and Herbert Hicks, where he worked in the fields and played baseball on weekends. At sixteen, he was bitten on the hand by a tarantula and collapsed in a cotton row. He was missing for almost 24-hours before a farmhand found him. He liked retelling this story over the years, as it evoked his days in West Texas, an unforgettable moment in his life.

Before pursuing a career in the legal field, Mike attended Dartmouth College on a partial academic scholarship. During holiday breaks, lacking bus fare money, he often hitchhiked from Hanover to Bloomington and back again. He also hitchhiked to Lawrence, Kansas, several times to see Joni Robertson, who would become his first wife, and to New York City with a college buddy. After graduating from Dartmouth, in 1968, he entered law school at Indiana University.

While at IU, Mike served on the editorial board of the Indiana Law Review, advancing to editor-in-chief. He graduated cum laude in 1971. By finishing in the top 10% of his class, he earned membership to The Order of the Coif, a national honor society that recognizes excellence in law school graduates. He served as a clerk to the Honorable W. Wallace Kent, of the U.S. Court of Appeals, 6^th Circuit, from 1971-1972, and was admitted to the State of Michigan Bar in 1972. Mike began private practice with the firm of Stanley, Davidoff, Long and Gray P.C.

He went on to spend 50 years as a lawyer at the firms of Fox, Thompson, Morris and Stover; Reed, Stover & O’Connor, and Lennon, Miller, O’Connor & Bartosiewicz, P.L.C., specializing in real estate law. During his long career, Mike was a fierce advocate for all his clients and a mentor to several aspiring young lawyers. He was known and sought out for his expertise in commercial real estate, environmental impact, land use, zoning, and construction and development matters. Beyond his professional practice, he regularly provided pro-bono services to community non-profits, as well as assisting those in need in Kalamazoo.

On July 14, 2001, he married Mary (Mathews) Miholer at their home in South Haven, Michigan, on a beautiful day overlooking the lake. Mary and Michael enjoyed 30 years together taking long walks on the beach, swimming, and collecting beach glass. They had both been lifeguards when young and loved the water. In their many travels – to the Galapagos, Peru, the Caribbean – they always seemed to wind up on one body of water or another.

Michael loved baseball, John Grisham novels, and conch fritters, not necessarily in that order. He played minor league ball briefly in the Lubbock, Texas, area, and dreamed of turning pro, before suffering a career-ending shoulder injury during his sophomore year of college. He recaptured a little of his former glory coaching his daughters’ softball and his son’s Little League teams. In later years he became a marathoner and triathlete and had many running friends in Kalamazoo.

After their marriage, Mike and Mary passed a lot of time at the Westwind Club, in Nassau, Bahamas, where Mike was a longtime board member. He relished morphing into “Bahama Mike” on their frequent retreats and family gatherings in Nassau and could often be found on the Westwind patio with a Grisham, Clancy, Turow, or Krueger novel in hand and a plate of conch fritters on the way. He liked nothing more than having his children and grandchildren there with him, too.

Most of all Mike loved spending time at his South Haven house, on a bluff over the lake, where he liked to sit in a worn Adirondack chair as the sun went down.

Remaining to cherish his memory are his wife, Mary O’Connor; son, John (Cassie Frank) O’Connor, daughters, Erin (Jayson) Field and Katharine O’Connor (Jeffrey Freeman); stepson, Zach Miholer; stepdaughter, Marissa Miholer; grandchildren, Conor and Declan Field, Rashida and Ignatz O’Connor, and Genevieve and Basil Freeman; step-grandchildren, Dylan and Madisyn Cornish, Maliyah and Monáe Flowers, Bailey Miholer-Wortinger, Charlie Miholer, McKenzie Miholer, and Maycie Miholer; great-grandchildren, Canyon, Maylee, Leilani, Aria, and Elina; brother, Patrick O’Connor; sisters, Dena O’Connor, Randa O’Connor, and Tanya O’Connor.

He was preceded in death by his parents and stepdaughter, Megan Miholer Cornish.

Mike’s laughter, wisdom, steadfast loyalty, sarcasm and even his occasionally grumpy nature will be deeply missed by all who knew him.

Additional Information

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Michael’s memory to:

Kalamazoo Dream Center
1122 Portage Street
Kalamazoo, MI  49001
https://kzoodreamcenter.org/

Or

South Michigan Food Bank
5451 Wayne Rd.
Battle Creek, MI 49037
https://smfoodbank.org/

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