[1] He was educated in Chicago, graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1922 and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant of infantry.

[2] After completing his initial infantry assignment, in 1925 O'Connell graduated from the Signal School at Camp Alfred Vail, New Jersey.

[17][18] After leaving the Army O'Connell was Vice President of the General Telephone and Electronics Laboratories in Palo Alto, California, for three years,[19] and he spent two years as a consultant with the Stanford Research Institute and manager of its Washington, D.C., office.

[20] O'Connell was a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and chaired its Joint Technical Advisory Committee from 1961 to 1964.

[22] After retiring from full-time employment in 1969, O'Connell resided in Bethesda, Maryland, and Boca Raton, Florida.