Making meaning from the unimaginable

Connor Lynch wanted to succeed. The son of a business owner and an executive, he’d had a front row seat to their achievements and hoped to carve out his own version of that path. His mother, Michelle, says evidence of his ambition was everywhere.

“In his apartment, I found pages and pages and pages of notes. I found them in his glove box. I found them in his phone. All of these ideas for businesses he wanted to start.”

There were times when those big ideas outpaced him. “He looked at buying an array of wholesale merchandise and creating an online store. And I said, that’s Amazon. You’re a little late [laughs].” But he was taking his mom’s advice.

When Connor, a sophomore at the University of South Florida, passed unexpectedly in February 2024, he’d just changed his major to entrepreneurial business and would soon start classes that covered the kinds of things Michelle had encouraged him to explore – writing a business plan, structuring financials, leveraging capital. “He was so excited about it all.”

But in the impossibility of losing him, one thing became clear to Connor’s mother and family: what a success he already was.

Ebbing the flow

When the news came in about Connor, Traci Richmond’s office froze.

“We actually ended up cancelling several appointments that day to focus on, ‘OK, how can we all absorb this?’ We had to get the emotions out, because Michelle needed our clear-headed thoughts."

Traci, a financial advisor with The Meakem Group, met Michelle when the latter was heading up the Raymond James Women Financial Advisors Network.

As Michelle’s advisor, Traci tried to stay focused on next steps and logistics. As a friend, she was devastated. “It helped me, certainly on a personal level, to have something to do, to focus on, to contribute.”

One of the things Traci did was oversee the donor advised fund (DAF) that was quickly opened to give a home to the deluge of generosity that surrounded the family in the wake of the tragedy.

“In those early days, we were inundated by an outpouring of love and support from so many,” Michelle said. “I couldn’t go 15 minutes without the doorbell ringing and more flowers or food being delivered. There were so many Uber Eats gift card emails.

“I was incredibly grateful, but it was overwhelming while also trying to process our grief. We needed a way for people to be able to express their love, and I didn’t know what that looked like.”

During a visit with colleagues and friends Shannon Reid and Jodi Perry, also both leaders at Raymond James, Jodi suggested the DAF. With help from Nicole Hisler, president of Raymond James Charitable, the fund was open within a day and firm leadership spread the word.

“What’s so helpful about a DAF in these situations is that it gives you time to come to terms with things,” Traci pointed out. “You don’t have to make decisions instantly, but you still have a receptacle for the outpouring of support. It allows that whole community around someone to grieve at their own pace and in their own way, while still giving the generosity that inevitably comes with it a purpose.”

To date, 366 discrete donations have been made to the Connor Lynch Legacy Fund.

Finding purpose

The accident that took Connor’s life was avoidable. He was on an e-scooter; the other vehicle involved was a car. But like the details of the event itself, the laws governing micromobility are frustratingly unclear. Changing that has become Michelle’s mission.

“Initially, we used the DAF to help other students pursuing entrepreneurial business at USF – there’s now an endowed scholarship in Connor’s name. But as time passed and I was able to process things, the question became ‘How do we use these funds to try and prevent this from happening to anybody else?’ That’s where the focus on micromobility safety came into play.”

Michelle will meet with two state senators in August in hopes of getting the topic on the upcoming legislative agenda. She’s also working with USF leadership to promote a campus awareness campaign this fall and will be participating in press conferences on micromobility safety with help from former colleagues at AAA, where she worked prior to joining Raymond James.

It's a cause she believes Connor would support. “I needed time to process what he would be passionate about, because he was 19. He didn’t know yet. Having the DAF has absolutely allowed me to do that and think about how I can make a meaningful impact in his name doing things he cared about, but on my own timeline.”

A lasting mark

Six hundred people attended Connor’s memorial.

It was a powerful demonstration of the impression he’d made in his young life, but it was the quieter, more individual moments that showed Michelle just how deep Connor’s impact truly went.

One of Connor’s favorite places at school was the Phi Delta Theta house. There, he’d found the brotherhood he spent his high school years searching for. And because it meant so much to him, his family wanted to leave his mark in the place where he felt like he belonged.

The basketball court they built in his honor – “In Loving Memory of Connor Lynch,” emblazoned on the hardtop – has become a touchstone, where both the family and the brothers can gather in celebration of his life and remembrance of what Connor meant to them.

“Many of his friends told me, you couldn’t go into Connor’s room for just a five-minute chat because he would engage you and you would be there for hours, having the most in-depth, meaningful conversations,” Michelle said.

And those conversations went both ways. Connor’s younger brother, Ryan, was surprised on his birthday this year when his phone began lighting up with well wishes from Phi Delta Theta brothers. “Ryan was like, ‘Why am I getting so many messages from Connor’s fraternity brothers?’ I told him, because they care about you and they care about Connor. They know you were important to him.”

In the wake of the moment that robbed Connor and his family of the future he was so eager for, Michelle has found a semblance of peace in learning that he was closer to realizing his potential than she ever knew.

“To hear people get up and talk about Connor at the vigil his fraternity held … he was a light. He touched so many people in so many ways; I had no idea. As if I could be any more proud of him, I was more proud of him in death than I ever knew I could be in life.”

A Mom’s Love

Michelle launched her blog, A Mom’s Love, in the hopes of fostering her own healing and helping others do the same. “It’s a place where I can go when a memory pops up or when I want to address something, and I can just go write. Get it out there.

“It’s not big; it’s all word of mouth so far. I want it to be a resource, a haven, for people who need it. To let them know that loss sucks … like, every ounce of it sucks. But you have to find a way forward. If I can help others who have been through something like this, I’m closer to finding purpose.”

Learn more at amomslove.org.

The Connor Lynch Legacy Fund

 

Connor was a sophomore and entrepreneurial business major at the University of South Florida when his life tragically came to an end in an e-scooter accident. The Connor Lynch Legacy Fund was created to educate people about micromobility safety as well as change laws to keep up with the advancing technologies of e-scooters, e-bikes and other electronic modes of transportation in pursuit of fewer accidents and deaths. His accident was avoidable, and the family doesn't want anyone else to suffer the same loss.

Learn more at The Connor Lynch Legacy Fund.