Michael Connors finished his last great adventure or August 16, 2025. Quiet funny, and fiercely smart he studied mathematics at Michigan Tech University and later helped build the future in Silicon Valley Work carried him around the world and eventually back to raise his family in Scotts Valley, California. He converted curiosity into tickets and a small child into a lifelong traveler.

Mike was a mathematician by training: he honored numbers and he honored promises. Travel with Mike was an apprenticeship and he taught the art of a Tetris-level packed suitcase. Roll the clothes, zip the bag, go. From him we also learned three things that still guide us: integrity in promises honesty in money, grit when life tests you. 

Animals were his soft spot. He rescued the lost, spoiled the found, and measured trips by the dogs he met along the way (even a couple of cats). Treats rode in the glove box next to the tire gauge and he learned the names of people's pets faster than their owners'. He liked the water best when he was under it. Scuba gave him a quiet world of breath, light, and motion. "Stop. Breathe. Think Act". It was advice for diving and for life.

Mike shared his alma mater with Jen; both studied at Michigan Tech, even in the same dorm. Winter Carnival ice sculptures, late-night broomball with friends, U.P. that teach grit and good humor; he passed all of that along. 

He was not loud about love. He showed it in airport hand offs and late-night drives and in patient fixes. He was the kind of father who turns a curious kid into a sturdy adult, and the kind of man whose decency travels across generations. 

Mike is survived by his favorite daughter, Jen, and her husband, Nate, step-son Don, and his wife Megan, grand-dogs, Elsie and Sunny, plus extended family and friends. Preceded in death by his parents, sister, pet family Duncan, Tigger, Turn-up, an Watson, and his wife, Aliceanne. He leaves behind a well-used passport, a seasoned Red Wings jersey and a family that keeps its passport handy and its promises kept. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Wilco Regional Animal Shelter or the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Or honor him the way he lived: keep your word, solve a hard differential equation, and be kind to animals.

Credo quia absurdum

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