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William O'Brien: Father of Brookline resident, former insurance CEO
Wednesday, August 28, 2002
William J. O'Brien of Southborough died at his home Saturday, Aug. 24, 2002. He was 69.
Born in Yonkers, N.Y., he was the son of the late Vincent and Margaret (Schaeper) O'Brien.
Mr. O'Brien was the chief executive officer of the Hanover Insurance Companies, headquartered in Worcester, from 1979 to 1991. During his tenure as president and CEO, Hanover moved from the bottom of the insurance industry to the top quartile.
Since retiring in 1991, Mr. O'Brien spent much of his time helping other organizations consider ways in which leaders can marry individual growth and economic performance in their companies. He completed a manuscript for publication, "Character & The Corporation," in 2002.
Mr. O'Brien was a founding member of the board of governors of the MIT Center for Organizational Learning. He was a founding partner of Generon Consulting, which assists companies and countries with cultural transformation. He was a consultant to The Convenant Group. He served on the board of directors of Shawmut Bank/Worcester, NSTAR Corporation, Claims Outsource Inc., and Blue Cod Technology. He was past president of the Worcester Economic Club. He was the founding chairman of Adopt-A-Student, an organization that raises scholarship funds for children of needy families to attend Worcester Diocese Catholic schools.
He was a 1950 graduate of St. Cecelia's High School in Englewood, N.J., and a 1954 graduate of Fordham University in Bronx, N.Y. He served in the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1956. He entered the insurance industry with SAFECO in 1956. He went to Security Insurance of Hartford in 1960, where he became vice president of agency operations. In 1968, he went to the Glens Falls Insurance Company as zone vice president. He joined Hanover Insurance in 1971.
He was a member of St. Matthew Church in Southborough.
He leaves his wife of 39 years, Catherine "Kay" (Kelaher) O'Brien; his daughter, Kathleen O. Pagano and her husband, Joseph, of Worcester; two sons, William V. O'Brien and his wife, Laura, of Brookline, and Christopher J. O'Brien of Boston; five grandchildren, Catherine, Emma and Leo Pagano, and Liam and Henry O'Brien.
The funeral was held Wednesday, Aug. 28, at St. Matthew Church in Southborough.
Burial was in the Rural Cemetery, Southborough.
Memorial contributions may be made to Worcester Diocese Adopt-A-Student Program, 49 Elm St., Worcester, MA 01609; or Worcester VNA Care Hospice, 120 Thomas St., Worcester, MA 01608.
Arrangements were made by the Morris Funeral Home, Southborough.
Vincent O'Gorman: Retired nuclear physicist
Wednesday, August 28, 2002
Vincent G. O'Gorman of North Hill, Needham, formerly of Chestnut Hill and Wellfleet, Cape Cod, died Saturday, Aug. 17, 2002. He was 82.
Born and brought up in Boston, he was a graduate of Boston Latin School and Harvard College, Class of 1943. He was the son and nephew of Harvard graduates.
As an undergraduate, Mr. O'Gorman originally planned to concentrate in mathematics and economics. In the spring of 1942, with the nation at war, it became obvious that mathematical economists were not going to be considered "essential" and his concentration shifted to physics.
His career in the field of nuclear science thus began while he was an undergraduate at Harvard, where he was a training fellow in the Research Laboratory of Physics and Communications Engineering. He was also an instructor in electronics, cathode ray tubes and high-frequency techniques (now known as radar).
Student employment performing data reduction calculations at Harvard afforded him experience in determining the heats of combustion of primary detonators and other high-explosive materials, knowledge that would prove essential to future professional challenges.
In 1944, Harvard President Dr. James Bryant Conant selected Mr. O'Gorman to report to Los Alamos, N.M., where he worked as a latent engineer and technical sergeant in the Manhattan District Corps of Engineers, to develop telemarketing equipment for exterior ballistic studies of the atomic bomb. His work was of utmost secrecy and involved regular interface with other scientists such as Enrico Fermi and Robert Oppenheimer.
After the war, he returned east and settled in Beverly, where he worked for the next 20 years at the United Shoe Machinery Co.'s Research Division, focusing on mechanism for the reactors of nuclear subMarines which, according to him in his Harvard 50th Reunion observations, "turned out to be only slightly less demanding than had been the frenzy to make the Bomb!"
The rest of his career was in research for private firms and in independent consulting in the field of radio and communications engineering.
He was a longtime member of the Harvard Club of Boston and of the Longwood Cricket Club in Chestnut Hill.
He was a man of many interests and a voracious reader. A lifelong denizen of Harvard's Arnold Arboretum, he loved learning the secrets of botany and of arboriculture and was a docent there for many years.
He leaves his wife of 25 years, Victoria (Sears) Thaler O'Gorman; his children, Dr. Stephen V. O'Gorman and his wife, Denise, of Shaker Heights, Ohio, Alice Holden and her husband, Phillip, of Boxford and Ellen Stone and her husband, Davis, of Marion; three sisters, Sister Eileen O'Gorman, RCSJ, of Purchase, N.Y., Kathleen Hurley of Westmount, Quebec, Canada, and Mary O'Gorman of Milton; five stepchildren, Richard W. Thaler Jr. of Bronxville, N.Y., Thomas W. Thaler of Boston, Roderick P. Thaler of Oyster Bay, N.Y., Warren S. Thaler of Merion, Pa., and Victoria Cabot of Dedham; four grandchildren; and 11 step-grandchildren.
He was the brother of the late Gaynor O'Gorman.
A memorial service was held Saturday, Aug. 24, at the Leslie Lindsey Chapel of Emmanuel Church, Boston.
Burial was private.
Memorial donations may be made to the Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130.
Arrangements were made by Folsom Funeral Home, Dedham.
Melvin Reicher: A founder of Boston Living Center
Wednesday, August 28, 2002
Melvin L. Reicher of Brookline died Saturday, Aug. 24, 2002.
Mr. Reicher served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. He was a first lieutenant in the infantry and was awarded a Bronze Star for heroism in ground combat.
He was a founder of the Boston Living Center for people living with HIV.
He leaves his mother, Minnie (Wachtel) Reicher of New York City; his brother, Jerome Reicher and his wife, Leslie, of East Walpole; his nephews, Seth and Kyle Reicher; and his great-niece, Isabel Reicher.
He was the son of the late Solomon Reicher.
Graveside services were held Monday, Aug. 26, at Sharon Memorial Park.
Memorial remembrances may be made to Cambridge CCA - Youth on Fire, 7 Temple St., Cambridge, MA 02139.
Arrangements were made by Levine Chapel, Brookline.
Nettie Rukin: Brookline resident, great-grandmother
Wednesday, August 21, 2002
Nettie (Fink) Rukin of Brookline, formerly of New York, died Thursday, Aug. 8, 2002, at North Wood Nursing Home in Lowell. She was 93.
Wife of the late Louis Rukin, she leaves her sons, Michael Rukin of Boston and Herbert Rukin of Lowell; six granddaughters; and four great-grandchildren.
Services were held at Riverside Cemetery in Rochelle Park, Lodi, N.J.
Remembrances may be made to Israel in Crisis Emergency Fund, c/o Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston, 126 High St., Boston MA 02110.
Arrangements were made by Levine Chapels, Brookline.
James Thomson Jr.: Headed Nieman Foundation, advised U.S. Presidents
Wednesday, August 21, 2002
James C. Thomson Jr., died Sunday, Aug. 11, 2002, in Newton-Wellesley Hospital. He was 70.
He was born in Princeton, N.J. Mr. Thompson was a "China hand," an early critic of United States' involvement in the Vietnam War before becoming director of the Nieman Foundation for Journalists at Harvard University. He said his views on U.S.-China rapprochement stemmed from his childhood, which he spent in Nanking during the 1930s and 1940s, when his father was a chemistry professor and his mother was an "educational missionary."
He graduated from Yale College. He earned additional degrees at Cambridge University in England and a doctorate degree in modern Chinese history at Harvard, where he studied under John King Fairbank.
After teaching at Harvard, Mr. Thomson was curator of the Nieman fellowships for mid-career journalists from 1972 to 1984. He finished his career as a professor of international relations, history and journalism at Boston University, where he joined the faculty in 1984.
As an adviser to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, Mr. Thomson was primarily a behind-the-scenes player in foreign policy debates. In 1968, two years after leaving government service, he wrote an article for Atlantic Monthly magazine titled, "How Could Vietnam Happen?" The piece, which offered an insider's indictment of U.S. policy in Southeast Asia, won him an award from the Overseas Press Club.
When President Nixon made his surprise visit to China in 1972, Mr. Thomson was a commentator for ABC News on Nixon's eight-day trip. He shared an Emmy award for the China coverage with Howard K. Smith, Frank Reynolds and other members of the ABC China team.
Early in his career, he interrupted his doctoral studies at Harvard to assist Adlai Stevenson in his second run for president.
He leaves his stepchildren, Dr. Anne Butler of Brookline and Lawrence G. Butler of Ashland; and two sisters, Anne Thomson Waller of Cherry Valley, N.J., and Sydney Thomson Brown of Palo Alto, Calif.
A memorial service is planned.
Frank Ames, Memorial service set
Wednesday, October 9, 2002
Frank A. Ames of Chestnut Hill died Sunday, Oct. 6, 2002.
He leaves his wife, Carlotta (Scinta) Ames; and his extended family, friends and colleagues.
A memorial service will be held Saturday, Oct. 19, 11 a.m., at the Church of the Redeemer, 379 Hammond St., Newton.
Memorial donations may be made to the Frank Ames Memorial Fund, Harvard School of Public Health, Building 2, Room 127, 665 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115.
Lillian Fishburne, Co-owner of employment agency
Wednesday, October 16, 2002
Lillian (Goldman) Fishburne died Saturday, Oct. 12, 2002, at Brigham & Women's Hospital.
Born in Brookline, she was the daughter of the late Abraham and Anne (Sandler) Goldman. Mrs. Fishburne was formerly known as Lillian Rogers and was the co-owner of Rogers & Sands Employment Agency in Boston.
Wife of the late Henry N. Fishburne, she leaves her sister, Claire Goldman of Brookline; and her cousins, Edward, Irving, Leo and George Sandel.
Services were held Tuesday, Oct. 15, from the Levine Chapels, Brookline.
Remembrances may be made to a charity of the donor's choice.
