by From the vastness of outer space to the depths of the sea.
Larry Connor is famous for being a race car driver, property 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 wreck site after the sinking disaster that claimed the lives of four sightseeing tourists.
Mr. Connor, a 74-year-old real estate tycoon and billionaire from Dayton, Ohio, recently announced plans to take a submarine to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean — over the wreckage of the doomed OceanGate crowd — in an effort to prove it is safe. , with a team. trips to the wreck of the Titanic are possible.
But, exactly who is the racing car driving, real estate billionaire from Ohio?
Mr. Connor, 74, is from Albany, New York, and is the owner of the Connor Group, a real estate investment firm in Dayton, Ohio.
After graduating from Ohio University in 1972, Mr. Connor eventually bought the Orlando Computer Group, which supplied software and hardware to companies, and became the second largest reseller of IBM microcomputers in the state of Florida.
In 1992, he co-founded Connor, Murphy & Buhrman, which would later become the Connor Group after buying out his partners in 2003.
Over nearly two decades, the Connor group’s assets grew from $100m to $4bn.
In addition to the Connor Group, the billionaire co-founded First Billing Services in 2003 and Heartland Regional Power in 2004. The former company acquired the latter.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Mr Connor tried to help his employees by donating $1.6bn of his own money to distribute as bonuses to his partners who were making less than $150,000 a year. He also agreed to pay childcare costs.
His business success has allowed him to explore increasingly extreme hobbies, some of which have taken him into orbit and to the deepest reaches of the earth.
Mr Connor’s interest in dangerous vehicles began in the 80s when he started racing formula cars. He had a starting place in the 1983 Atlantic Championship, and continued to race at various levels into the 2000s.
In 2003, he was part of the winning team at that year’s Petit Le Mans, and just over ten years later, his Team C racing outfit won the grueling Baja 1000 after moving into off-road racing.
Two years later his team won the Baja 500 Trophy Truck series.
In April 2021, he began a journey that would take him to the deepest parts of the ocean and into space within the same 12-month period.
Mr Connor, then 71, joined Triton Submersible founder Patrick Lahey on a trip to the Mariana Trench region. The men finished by diving; one to an undersea mountain in the Mariana Trench, one to Sirena Deep, the third deepest part of the ocean, and another to Challenger Deep, the deepest underwater spot on the planet.
“The trip was amazing,” Mr Connor told the Dayton Daily News at the time. “It’s a different world down there.”
The Challenger Deep is approximately 23,000 feet deeper than the Titanic’s final resting place.
Almost exactly a year later, Mr. Connor joined the Axiom 1 Mission as an astronaut. He piloted the first all-private space mission, which took the crew to the International Space Station. In doing so, he became the second oldest person to enter orbit after John Glenn, who entered 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’s impossible. These two achievements are great challenges that have come with great responsibility.”
Mr Connor was reportedly taking heart cells for study at the space station.
Despite his various extreme hobbies and interests, Mr. Connor does not consider himself a devil.
“First of all, I don’t think I’m a daredevil,” he said Car week. “I think there are no old daredevils. Whether it’s in racing, or aerobatic competitions, or going into space or going to the bottom of the ocean, I’ve never done anything that I thought had risks that we couldn’t control or that were unacceptable risks there.”
In addition to his explorations, Mr. Connors also does philanthropic work. He started the Connor Group Kids & Community Partners group, which “provides opportunities for disadvantaged young people in the communities where The Connor Group operates”.
Mr. Connor also started the Greater Dayton School, Ohio’s “first non-denominational private school for underprivileged students,” as well as Colin’s Lodge, a “recreational and enrichment program for young adults with special needs at them.”
The billionaire has not yet revealed when the trip to the Titanic will take place.
