WCU Magazine Fall/Winter 2025

Patrick O’Connor M’93 has built his life around people. Before and after earning his graduate degree, O’Connor’s path has woven through military service, international experience, and civilian leadership positions at the Pentagon. The undercurrent through all this experience is his belief that learning about and from people is what shapes a meaningful life.

O’Connor became a commissioned officer in the U.S. Marines after completing his undergraduate degree. Years later, formed by his service and desiring something more, he returned to the classroom to pursue his master’s degree in history and education. He was then called back into service following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. That path — education, service, and a return to deeper study — is one many WCU alumni have traveled.

It was his time in the Marines that influenced his decision to pursue graduate education, especially in history and politics. “Studying the Middle East made me want to go explore it, and then when I did, it made me reflect even more on what I learned in grad school at West Chester.” Experience deepened his studies, and his studies deepened his experience. It became a cycle of curiosity and lifelong learning, one that is still turning today.

“Pursuing a master’s degree is acknowledging you don’t have all the answers,” he says. Graduate education teaches people to think at a different level, especially in how they engage with others. Disagreeing with people respectfully, instead of simply turning your back on them, and letting them explain what shaped their viewpoints helps you understand how they got to where they are.

It’s the same enduring lesson of empathy, and search for understanding, he learned in the Marines. “One thing they taught me as a leader is, you never ask someone to do something you wouldn’t do yourself. It’s about caring for people and their circumstances, about having walked in their shoes.”

The ability to connect ideas and interpret complexity shapes his work today as defense consultant at the Pentagon, where he supports the introduction of new technologies into government service. Science and technology are inherent to the job, but how it affects people is what’s critical, he says. “You have to explain what technologies are doing for people, what they’re supposed to do, and why innovation can be a good thing.”

At its core, leadership and service to others cannot be engineered. “Empathy is an art. Understanding people is an art. Leading people and being led is an art. It is not a science, people are different, and organizations are different, so you must constantly evaluate your relationships and how you adjust to different roles in life.”

Graduate school is one of the few places where the art of “understanding” is intentionally cultivated — not through formulas or outcomes, but through sustained curiosity and exposure to experiences that push students to see the world, and each other, more fully.

“It helps you analyze things better over time, even if the effect isn’t an immediate transaction.”

In the end, for O’Connor, it all comes back to people. He remembers the people who have inspired, motivated, and helped him in his career, and he tries to do the same for those he currently mentors.

One of those individuals was the late Marine Lt. Gen. Martin Berndt ’69, whose photo hangs in the University’s Sturzebecker Health Sciences Center to honor his 36 years of active-duty service. He also remembers WCU professors, mentors, and classmates whose conversations stayed with him long after he left school.

Even today, he is inspired by the people who serve on the board of the West Chester University Alumni Association.

“The people who volunteer on the board and volunteer in support of University events are truly inspiring. They passionately seek to mentor and assist current students get started in their careers. Many of them are educators who have devoted their lives to teaching elementary school, high school, special needs; they’re really good people. I continue to stay involved and volunteer at WCU events here because of the role models I’ve had in the past and the people who are at WCU today.”