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Connelly was born into rural poverty, raised by a courageous single mother who was abandoned by her husband while she was pregnant with him. He taught himself how to read when he was three and graduated from high school at sixteen, valedictorian and class president.
From there he went on to become a major general in the USAR, and a panel participant in the Moscow Summit of 1988, that ended the Cold War on May 31, 1988.
About the author
MaryJane Connelly, also known as MJ, is Stan and Mary Jane Connelly's youngest child. She retired in 2020 after teaching for forty years and being awarded the Distinguished Faculty Award from Finlandia University's Board of Trustees in 2017.
Her fascination with leadership that she taught for the last 20 years of her career began with listening to her father's stories of how he led, and what qualities he considered essential for good leadership. She was not surprised that his views on what made good leaders aligned with contemporary scholarship in the field, and she often cited her father in her classes.
She also taught Government 101 while serving as the president of the Copper Country League of Women Voters in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. She wanted her students to not only understand the American political process, but to be participants in it.
MaryJane currently lives in Detroit near two of her grandchildren, and rides her bike around Belle Isle most mornings with her partner, Michael Betzold.
