Queer Places:
University of Wisconsin-Madison, 716 Langdon St, Madison, WI 53706
Prairie Spring Hotel, WI 23 South, Willow Springs, Mineral Point, WI 53565
Foundry Book Store, 105 Commerce St, Mineral Point, WI 53565
Forest Hill Cemetery
Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin, USA
Dean Matthew Connors (July 30, 1926 - August 25, 2016) was born in Hurley, Wisconsin on July 30, 1926, the second of three sons of Harold and Velma Connors. Dean's parents were both teachers who gave Dean a lasting lesson in the importance of life-long education. Dean attended public schools in Hurley, and then entered the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1944 as a pre-med student. After an 18 month stint in the US army, he returned to the U of W, graduating with his medical degree in 1952. In 1956, he married Charlotte Boynton, MD. They had two children, Susan and Dale. After finishing a residency in pathology at the University of Wisconsin Medical School, in 1957 Dean was appointed as the first pathologist at St. Mary's Hospital in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. In July of 1959, he and Charlotte returned with their children to Madison, where Dean began a 34 year career as chief pathologist and laboratory director at St. Mary's Hospital, retiring in October of 1993.
In retirement, Dean found many interests, including a study of early
Wisconsin history and restoring old historic buildings.
The Prairie Spring Hotel, also known as the Daniel Morgan Parkinson House, was built in 1834 with Greek Revival elements. The structure is located in Lafayette County outside Willow Springs, WI. Dana Duppler first saw the Prairie Spring Hotel, 40 miles from Paoli, in 1982 and talked to the owners then. He couldn’t buy the building because he couldn’t do anything with it, but he could see that it was really important. From his readings and observations he figured this building had to be one of the oldest around, probably early 1830s. Dean Connors came along in 1994 and underwrote the cost of buying it, moving it, restoring the exterior, and all the other costs.
In 1995, Dean opened the Foundry Book Store in Mineral Point, specializing
in out of print Wisconsin history books, documents and maps. In 2001, because
of failing health, he retired for a second time and returned to Madison to
live, but continued a lively interest in history, now focused on the world of
the ancients and its impact on Western Civilization.
He was survived by his daughter
Susan Connors and her spouse Mary Jane
Haas, and some very good friends especially Phil Roehrborn and Don Lamb.
My published books:
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