Obituaries

David McCourt, Widower Of New London 9/11 Victims, Dies At 71

The widower of two New London residents who died in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, who subsequently became involved in several memorial efforts in the city, has passed away.

David McCourt died Thursday at the Connecticut Hospice after suffering from a metastatic melanoma, according to an obituary issued by the Thomas L. Neilan & Sons Funeral Home.

McCourt was the husband of 45-year-old Ruth McCourt and father of 4-year-old Juliana Valentine McCourt, who died on United Airways Flight 175. The airplane was the second one to be hijacked in the 9/11 attacks and crashed into the World Trade Center. 

McCourt founded the Juliana Valentine McCourt Children's Education Fund with Mary Bryant, whom he married in 2011 in Niantic. The fund, with a mission “to educate young people everywhere in the virtues of generosity, kindness, and the acceptance of differences among cultures, races, and religions,” continues to be administered through the Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut.

McCourt also founded B.R.A.V.E. Juliana, a program of HELP USA, to teach non-violence to children. He was also a supporter of the McCourt Memorial Garden at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum and attended annual softball games between the New London Fire Department and New London Police Department to raise money for the Juliana Valentine McCourt Children's Education Fund.

McCourt graduated from St. Francis Preparatory School in Biddeford, Maine in 1959 and came to Connecticut to attend the University of Hartford, graduating in 1966. He earned a master's degree in business administration from Atlanta University in 1969 and joined his family business, ABCO Welding Supply.

A memorial service will take place at 2 p.m. on July 27 at the Old Lyme Country Club. 

McCourt is survived by his wife, twin sons Tavis and Stephen McCourt, daughters Elizabeth Smith and Kathy Paine, sister Mary McCourt Sheffield, and nine grandchildren.


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