Maxton G. Connor, 24

BOSTON, Mass. — Maxton Garrett Connor (24) passed away unexpectedly in his home in Boston in late March, 2021.

He is survived by his parents, Meredith and Michael Connor of Gilford, NH; his brother, Jason Connor of Berkeley, CA; grandmother, Corinne Forti of Tucson, AZ; great-aunt, Joan Murray of Canterbury, NH; aunts, Kimberly Foley of Gilford, NH, Jocelyn Biondo of St. Augustine, FL, Lindsay Ray of Arlington, VT, and Ann Warden of Ashburn, VA; uncle, Granger Dyett of Yarmouthport, MA; cousins, Olivia and AJ Bruce, Tori, Tyler and Timmy Biondo, Cameron and Tiffany Ray, Tyler and Matthew Warden.

Max was born in August, 1996, in Maryland, and grew up in Maryland, Georgia and Connecticut. He spent most summers on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire and cherished his time at the lake with friends and family boating and jet-skiing. Throughout his life, Max was curious and inquisitive about everything he saw, and loved learning constantly. He played piano, cello, mandolin, guitar, electric bass, and drums and was a founding member of an award-winning garage band “Ignition” in middle school. He rowed on the Avon High School (AHS) crew team, sang in AHS’s a cappella group, “Rhapsody,” and earned places in both the CT State Choir and the National Choir in 2013. He was a National Merit Scholar and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Northeastern University in 2019. Max cherished his time at Northeastern and was so fortunate to meet like-minded, brilliant people with whom he shared many adventures. He and his college friends entered and won several ‘Hackathons’ in which teams solve a problem or come up with an invention and write the code without breaks or sleep.

He travelled extensively with his friends to over 20 countries and loved the excitement of new experiences, from scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef to cliff jumping in Malta to sky-diving in Dubai. He was fluent in Spanish and was teaching himself Mandarin, just for the challenge of it. He had several internships and co-ops throughout college, and began his career as a software engineer with Facebook in September 2019, where he contributed his amazing skills and talents to his team and had a very bright future.

Everyone who knew Max loved him. In addition to his passion for all things tech and music, Max was known for his happy, calm nature, his great sense of humor and his kindness. He could play any song on demand and made gatherings with family and friends wonderful and memorable by playing guitar for sing-alongs. Merging his two passions, music and technology, he created his own website www.maxton.xyz, on which his many years of projects can be found. One of his favorite software accomplishments was his successful modification (“modding”) of a popular rock music video game that enabled people to play their own music in the game. Many of his thousands of followers from multiple online communities asked him for coding help and he was happy to share his knowledge with anyone who needed it, with patience and humility. The family received hundreds of condolences from his followers, who said that Max’s work had truly impacted them — in some cases even saved them — and will live on. On his music website, music.maxton.xyz, he showcased his musical creations, in which he isolated and then learned, played and recorded each track of a song separately and combined them to create recordings, 100% his own playing — every instrument, beat and vocal. His talents and creativity were boundless.

Max loved life, lived a healthy lifestyle, and had so many plans. Another of his passions was riding his bike all around Boston. He had just bought a new bike and was so looking forward to getting back to biking to work at Facebook in Cambridge when the offices reopened. He and his brother were planning a trip to Japan, and he and his college friends were more than ready to start traveling the world again.

The family held a Celebration of Max’s Life on Saturday, April 10. The event can be viewed by the public on Max’s mom’s Facebook page (Meredith Dyett Connor).

In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate donations to the Maxton G. Connor Charitable Fund, which has been established to ensure that his name and generous spirit will carry on to support causes he cared about, including music and engineering education, youth opportunity and mentoring, food and housing insecurity, global health and poverty relief. Online donations can be made via either link below. Go Fund Me: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-maxton-g-connor-charitable-foundation or New Hampshire Charitable Foundation (managing the Fund): https://give.nhcf.org/SupportaSpecificFund. To donate directly to Max’s Fund, search “Maxton” via the link above. Donations at NHCF can also be made via stock transfer or check (write check to NHCF and write “Maxton G Connor Charitable Fund” in memo).