Eugene O'Brien

Eugene (Gene) Joseph O’Brien passed away at his home in Roseville, California on January 7, 2011. He was 93.

The son of Joseph Michael O’Brien and Jean Adelaide McRae, he was born on December 25, 1917, in Brooklyn, NY. He attended Hamilton High School in Brooklyn, and graduated in 1935 from Ridgewood High School in Ridgewood, NJ, where his parents had moved in 1933. At Ridgewood High Gene was a member of the basketball, track and boxing teams. Following graduation he attended Paterson State College in Paterson, NJ. In 1938 he married his high school sweetheart Helen Rebecca (Becky) Hall, with whom he had two children, Eugene, Jr., and Susan. Gene and Becky were happily married until her death in 1977.

In 1942 he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, and after pilot training in Deming, NM and Tempe, AZ, he was promoted to Second Lieutenant and served as a bombardier in the 63rd Bomb Squadron, 43rd Bomb Group, in the Pacific theater; he received the American Campaign and Asiatic Pacific Campaign medals. He was active in the Air Force Reserve, from which he retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1977. Following the end of World War II Gene joined United Airlines as a passenger agent in 1946 and was first stationed at Newark and Idlewild (now Kennedy) airports. In 1957 he was reassigned by United to Epply Airfield in Omaha, NE, where he retired in 1977 as UAL’s Manager of Passenger and Cargo Service.

In 1979 he married Carol Dawn Malloy, and together they began a new phase of their lives. Always an avid golfer (he was still playing until a few years before his death), Gene found a new golf and tennis partner in Carol. They also traveled extensively, including trips through Australia, New Zealand, China, Peru, Egypt, the USSR, as well as almost all the countries of western Europe, many of them multiple times. Their trips within the US included several Alaska cruises and a whitewater rafting trip on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.

Gene was preceded in death by his parents, by his younger sister Constance, and by his first wife Becky. He is survived by his wife Carol, his children Susan and Eugene, Jr., his grandson Damon, his step-daughters Susana and Juliana, his step-grandchildren Megan and Jeffrey, and his step-great-grandson Elliot.

A Graveside service will be held at the Sacramento Valley National Cemetery in Dixon, CA on Friday, January 21, 2011 at 11:00 AM. Full military honors will be rendered for his valiant service to our country.

Arrangements under the direction of Lambert Funeral Home, Roseville, CA.