WITH the sudden death of John Connor, 65, in Spain at the weekend, Scottish rugby, and in particular the game in Edinburgh, has lost one of its more colourful characters.
Johnny, as he was known, came into rugby late on in his 20s after playing junior football, and according to his close friend and fellow-businessman, Norrie Rowan, "he just loved the camaraderie of rugby, the tours, the fun it gave him. He was never
a great player, but was attracted by the ethos of the game."
I can vouch for Johnny's enthusiasm for touring as we had the pleasure of playing together during the Edinburgh Golden Oldies tour of Hong Kong back in the early nineties when he proved to be the life and soul of the group.
Though he went to school at Holy Cross Academy in Edinburgh, it was Forrester FP who he played for, and after a season spent playing with, and occasionally contesting one of the wing berths with Rowan, he finally became a first-choice winger at his club when Rowan moved to Boroughmuir where he soon developed into an international prop.
Johnny Connor went on to become president of Forrester FP and because he was a very successful entrepreneur and innovator in the waste-paper trade, starting off in a paper mill at Balerno, and ending up as owner and chairman of Stirling Fibre, which his son now Forbes runs, he was able to invest large sums of money in Watsonians, reckoned to be about £150,000 – about ten years ago when club rugby flirted with professionalism – and then, over the past few years, in Currie, whose jerseys bear Connor's Stirling Fibre name.
"Johnny, who joined the Merchant Navy when a teenager to get away from a bad crowd he was getting involved with, was hard and ruthless in business, as befits a self-made millionaire, and would fight you for your last pound, but if you wanted help or assistance he would be the first to offer it," stressed Rowan.
"He had lots of fingers in lots of pies, and helped out many individuals and companies with money, and it was Johnny Connor who invented the recycling of waste paper. He transformed the industry, make no mistake about that."
The businessman also put up a six-figure sum into the John Connor Awards which helped young entrepreneurs from the Edinburgh area take their first step in attempting to follow in his footsteps .
According to another ex-Forrester colleague, Kenny Hepburn, who like Rowan, moved to Boroughmuir to further his career as a hooker, which he did very successfully as well, Johnny also loved horse-racing.
"That was his big hobby after rugby and he owned a few horses. Johnny had a great personality and was at his most affable and generous when at sporting events, the complete opposite to what he was when it came down to business.
"He was still involved in Stirling Fibre, though Forbes had control of the day-to-day running of the company."
If club rugby in Scotland had gone fully professional in the mid-late nineties, there's no doubt Johnny Connor would have been a big shaker and mover as the clubs searched for investors. "He would have been at the forefront, no doubt about that," stressed Rowan.
Johnny Connor is survived by his wife Mary, son Forbes, who played scrum-half for Watsonians and Preston Lodge, and daughters Debbie and Kim.
