Sandia High School Alumni
Albuquerque, New Mexico (NM)
Daniel O'connell Obituary
Daniel O'connell attended Sandia High School in Albuquerque, NM. View the obituary, post a memory, or share a photo about Daniel O'connell.
| Graduation Year | Class of 1968 |
| Date of Passing | Nov 25, 2020 |
| About | Eulogy for Danny O’Connell (2/23/50 - 11/25/20) It was with much sadness that I read of the passing of Daniel O’Connell, one of my best friends while in High School and for some time after. I am not aware of an obituary but Danny was one of the kindest people that I have known. I am not sure when I met Danny, I believe that it was in my junior year at Sandia High School (SHS) in Albuquerque, NM, 1966 or 1967. He attracted attention at school from the beginning, often wearing a Mexican Pancho and sporting the longest blond hair of anyone at school, at the time about to the bottom of his earlobes. Danny was quiet, but had a charisma and a great smile, and he soon attracted a social group of “Hippies” that represented an alternative to the mainstream social groups dominated by athletes and hoods, or the “nerd” social group that existed at SHS at the time. Many of the members of the Hippie social group were people that didn’t fit in with other groups, while others had other reasons to join. Danny influenced me in many ways, one of which was to introduce me to music that he enjoyed. In particular, I remember the music of Van Morrison, a great musician who was in the group “Them” at the time. We shared many adventures. At one point, Danny had made contact with someone at UNM who sold marijuana. None of us had tried it and we all chipped in to buy a lid. A day or so later, we got together to smoke “pot”. After smoking a while, we found that we weren’t getting high and noticed that the odor was somewhat familiar. It turned out that we had purchased oregano! Eventually, we got the real thing and Danny had a number of parties at his house when his parents were away. To me, these were great events, there were strobe lights, rock music, I met people from all over Albuquerque, and there were hot girls! At one of the parties, I was amazed to hear John Webb and Scott Perkins (two guys that I knew from Jr. high school) playing Yardbirds music on electric guitars through amps and using a homemade fuzztone. I decided that I wanted to learn guitar and I believe that Danny lent me his guitar to try. At times, I walked to school with Danny and sometimes we would smoke pot on the way to school and go to classes stoned. These were times when there was a great political split in America over the Vietnam war. Our Hippie group was antiwar and experimented with drugs, which was counter to most of the student population and the school administration. I had an old 1952 Cadillac and quite a few times while driving we would be spotted and chased by SHS hoods. More than once I had to ditch them, sometimes running red lights. Returning home late one evening, Danny and I and a few friends stopped at a truck stop to eat. While eating we were harassed by a couple of cowboys, and management kicked them out. After we finished eating, they ambushed us in the parking lot. These were large men in their late 20s and most of our group were skinny kids with no fighting experience. The larger one stood next to me while the shorter stocky one harassed Danny and after a short time punched him in the mouth. At that point a waitress came out of the truck stop and informed the cowboys that she had called the cops and they left. It was a horrible experience. One weekend, Danny invited me to go to Las Cruces, where he was from and where we would be able to stay at one of his friend’s houses. I don’t remember the particulars of how we got there. I believe that we may have gone with another member of our hippie group, perhaps David Cordova, but I am not sure. What I do remember was walking around late at night and painting “war” on stop signs (to leave the message “Stop War”), and perhaps painting a few peace signs. Later in the weekend, we went to NM State University, where we hung out with some NMSU Hippies. One of the students was a Black guy who played music by the group “Love” on a small record player. I really like the album and purchased it later, and I still occasionally listen to music by that group. As time went on, Danny’s harassment at SHS increased. He was referred to by the nickname “Animal” by a large part of the school population, and years later in Rio Rancho, he confided in me that, while walking home, occasionally a carload of hoods would stop and they would pile out and beat him up. Other members of the group were also targeted. One of the girls was raped at the Carnaby 66 parking lot after being lured to a car to smoke pot. Additional harassment came from the SHS administration. One afternoon, Danny, I, and another of our group, possibly David Cordova, were called by intercom to the attendance office. There, Mr. Andrade, the attendance director, told us that we were all suspended because our hair was too long. We could only come back when we got a haircut. We all felt that it was against our principles and our rights to be ordered to get a haircut. In my case, I thought it over and decided that if I didn’t graduate, I wouldn’t be able to go to a university as I was planning. In the end, I cut my hair. Danny stood up for his principles and didn’t return to school. I have wondered how his life might have been if he had graduated from SHS. Danny had a girlfriend, named Nichole, that lived somewhere in the valley. Since he didn’t have a car there were quite a few times that I gave him a ride to go and visit her. After a time, their relationship soured and Danny had a hard time getting over her. I remember taking him to see her a few times and after a short visit driving him back home when he was obviously depressed. After graduation, I attended NM Tech in the fall semester in 1968. I had hopes of playing electric bass in a group with John Webb and Scott Perkins, and decided to quit after the semester ended. I didn’t want to return home with my parents and be nagged about returning to the University, so I decided to hitchhike to San Francisco with Danny. The mother of one of the girls in our Hippie group had married a millionaire who had a home in Berkeley and we had an invitation. Friends dropped us off on Route 66 on a freezing cold December day to hitchhike. Fortunately we got a ride straight to Los Angeles pretty quickly with a couple of young guys that bought beer and offered us pot the entire distance. We arrived in Los Angeles in the early morning, and hung out with other hippies. I remember panhandling, sleeping in a church a night or two and one night in the back of a car. Somehow we made it to San Francisco, stayed in the basement of the millionaire’s home in Berkeley, and had adventures in Haight-Ashbury and Golden Gate park. About this time the first Led Zeppelin album came out and Danny and I were blown away by it. After 2 or 3 weeks, I was feeling like I had overstayed my welcome and decided to hitchhike back to NM. I had a number of adventures coming back, some a bit unpleasant, but made it home. Years later, Danny related to me that there was a third person staying in the basement and that he returned by train. I have no memory of the third person. Upon returning to Albuquerque, I lost track of Danny. My musical abilities were not up to the level of my friends and I was fired from the band. After a few years of physical labor and more adventures, I returned to NM Tech, graduated and worked at a number of firms as a scientist and programmer. I lost track of Danny until 10 or 12 years ago, when I found him through social media (Facebook, I think). I was married to a Spanish National, working at Sandia National Laboratories and had a house in Rio Rancho, where Danny and his father lived. I invited Danny over for dinner and I believe that he came with his caregiver. I was taken aback by his physical condition, as he was suffering from Rheumatoid arthritis and was very thin. We ate and talked about old times. He offered me a joint, but I refused as I hadn’t smoked in years. We got together a few more times for lunch and both of us enjoyed talking about the good old days. He was the same Danny that I always knew and that was a good thing. I retired from SNL and moved to Spain about 9 years ago. I still have my house in Rio Rancho, and would occasionally come back, but often I had too much work and little time to socialize. My last return, in the fall of 2019, It tried to get in touch multiple times, but wasn’t successful. At the time, Danny was in a nursing home. In the fall of 2020, Danny contracted COVID-19. He passed away on 11/25/2020. No obit was written for Danny. I found out about his death by accessing his Facebook account where a notice was left in a post by his sister, Rita O’Connell. She related details to me about Danny’s life during the years in which we had no contact. In the 1970’s Danny had a job in a nursing home and his girlfriend was Certified Nursing Assistant. They moved to Portland, Oregon so that she could study for her RN. Unfortunately their relationship didn’t last. At one point, Danny worked in data entry for Genentech in Mountain View, California. He returned to NM in the 1980s to live with his parents, and help care for them and his nieces. He was very much loved by his nieces. For adventure, he took a multi-state bike ride. Danny’s parents bought a home in Rio Rancho and Danny stayed with them. They lived on very little money and Danny’s Rheumatoid Arthritis took a turn for the worse. His father helped to get him on disability. His mother died in 2006 and Danny moved in with his caretaker in Bernalillo, with whom he had a relationship. His health declined his last few years until he became institutionalized. Danny was preceded in death by his parents, Daniel F. and Juanita B. O'Connell and two sisters, Jean Marie O'Connell and Alice Jensen. He leaves one brother, Kevin O'Connell of Omaha, NE, and three sisters, Carmel O'Connell of San Francisco, CA, Rita O'Connell of San Jose, CA, and Susan Weissberg of Arroyo Grande, CA. Daniel never married and left no children. He spent his final years with his caregiver in Bernalillo, NM. I regret that I didn’t spend more time with him while in Rio Rancho and I cherish the memories of our adventures together. Carl Axness Alicante, Spain (carl.axness@gmail.com) |
Bill Buckalew '68 said:
Nicely done, Carl. Regards, Bill Buckalew
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