From the vastness of space to the depths of the sea.
Larry Connor is known as a race car driver, real estate mogul and private astronaut. Now he wants to be known for a new claim to fame: being the first person to go to the Titanic shipwreck after the submarine disaster that claimed the lives of four traveling tourists.
Mr. Connor, a 74-year-old real estate mogul and billionaire from Dayton, Ohio, recently announced plans to take a submarine to the Atlantic seafloor — past the wreckage of the ill-fated OceanGate expedition — in an attempt to prove it is safe and manned. Excursions to the wreck of the Titanic are possible.
So who exactly is the racecar-driving real estate billionaire from Ohio?
Mr. Connor, 74, is from Albany, New York, and owns the Connor Group, a real estate investment company in Dayton, Ohio.
After graduating from Ohio University in 1972, Mr. Connor eventually acquired Orlando Computer Group, which provided software and hardware to companies, and became the second-largest seller of IBM microcomputers in the state of Florida.
In 1992, he founded Connor, Murphy & Buhrman, which became the Connor Group after acquiring his partners in 2003.
Over nearly two decades, the Connor group’s assets grew from $100 million to $4 billion.
In addition to Connor Group, the billionaire also founded First Billing Services in 2003 and Heartland Regional Power in 2004. The former company eventually acquired the latter.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Mr. Connor tried to help his employees by donating $1.6 billion of his own money to be distributed as bonuses to colleagues earning less than $150,000 a year. He also agreed to pay for child care.
His success in business allowed him to explore increasingly extreme hobbies; some of which took him into orbit and into the deepest parts of the planet.
Mr. Connor’s fascination with dangerous vehicles began in the 80s when he started racing formula cars. He was the starter at the 1983 Atlantic Championships and continued to compete at various levels into the 2000s.
In 2003, he was a member of the team that won that year’s Petit Le Mans race, and just over a decade later, after switching to off-road racing, the Team C racing team won the grueling Baja 1000 race.
Two years later his team won the Baja 500 Trophy Truck series.
In April 2021, he began a journey that will take him to the deepest parts of the oceans and into space within the same 12-month period.
Mr. Connor, then 71, worked with Triton Submersible founder Patrick Lahey on an expedition to the Mariana Trench region. The men completed three dives; one to the undersea mountain in the Mariana Trench, one to the Sirena Deep, the third deepest part of the ocean, and the other to the Challenger Deep, the deepest known underwater spot on the planet.
“The journey was phenomenal,” Mr. Connor said. Dayton Daily News In that case. “It’s a different world down there.”
Challenger Deep is approximately 23,000 feet deeper than the Titanic’s final resting place.
Almost exactly a year later, Mr. Connor joined Axiom Mission 1 as an astronaut. He served as a pilot on the first completely private space mission, which took the crew to the International Space Station. Thus, he became the second oldest person to enter orbit after John Glenn, who went into space at the age of 77.
“I have always encouraged others to dream big, aim high and set impossible goals,” Mr. Connor said at the time. “Nothing is impossible unless you think it is impossible. Both of these achievements are great challenges that require great responsibility.”
Mr. Connor reportedly received heart cells to study on the space station.
Despite his various outrageous hobbies and interests, Mr. Connor does not consider himself a brave person.
“First of all, I don’t think I’m a brave person,” he said. Auto Week. “I think there are no old braves. “Whether it’s racing, whether it’s aerobatic competitions, whether it’s going into space, whether it’s going to the bottom of the ocean, I’ve never done anything that I thought were risks that we couldn’t control or that were unacceptable risks.”
In addition to exploring, Mr. Connors also does philanthropic work. She founded Connor Group Kids & Community Partners, which “provides opportunities for disadvantaged young people in the communities where Connor Group operates.”
Mr. Connor also founded Greater Dayton School, Ohio’s “first non-religious private school for under-resourced students,” as well as Colin’s Lodge, “a recreation and enrichment program for young adults with special needs.”
The billionaire has not yet announced when the Titanic voyage will take place.