In Loving Memory of JOHN P. CONNELLY

JANUARY 31, 1961 –

HE SEAFOOD INDUSTRY lost one of its greatest titans, longtime National Fisheries Institute (NFI) President and CEO John Connelly, late last year.

“John led our organization with passion and a steadfast hand for nearly 20 years. He was a warm, generous man and his legacy will have an impact on NFI and the seafood industry for decades to come,” NFI said upon Connelly’s passing in November 2022.

At the helm of NFI for nearly two decades, Connelly helped shape the organization into the leading U.S. seafood industry trade group. Additionally, he created the Better Seafood Board, the Global Seafood Market Conference, and the Seafood Nutrition Partnership; led the merger of the National Tuna Federation and subsequent development of the NFI council system; and served on multiple industry boards.

“It’s been a long year with a lot of losses, and I think – as I look back – the loss of John Connelly is one of the hardest ones,” Trident Seafoods CEO Joe Bundrant said. “There’s people in your life that you work with, and you have a rapport,

NOVEMBER 20, 2022 but with John and I, it was much more than that. We shaped an industry trade and built a business. We raised families together – raising kids and drivers’ licenses and daughters dating and going off to college and getting married and becoming grandparents. To be able to share 20 years of my life with a man like that, I feel honored and blessed.”

Connelly left an “indelible impact” on the lives of NFI’s staff, the organization said.

“He was a hard-working boss whose naval officer pedigree taught him to lead from the front. He was a warm-hearted father figure who cared deeply about those around him. He was a tough, honest, and funny man – with a genuine twinkle in his eye and a story for every occasion. He was someone who wrote postcards to family and friends from his travels around the world. He was a man of deep faith and happiest spending time with his family,” NFI said.

John’s seafood family remembers him here in photographs, snapped over the course of his storied industry voyage.