Dave O'Brien:
CLASS OF 1960
Napa High SchoolClass of 1960
Napa, CA
University of Oklahoma - Advanced ProgramsClass of 1976
Norman, OK
Hastings College of LawClass of 1967
San francisco, CA
University of CaliforniaClass of 1964
Berkeley, CA
Dave's Story
Life
I was born (June, 1942) and raised in Napa, California, graduated from Napa High School in 1960, the University of California at Berkeley in 1964 (Political Science)and Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco in 1967. I was married to Anne Marie Ehrlich of Napa in September, 1966, and our first child, Mary Elizabeth, was born in Napa in 1968. I had been in Air Force ROTC at Cal, so when I failed the California Bar Examination in 1967, I entered the Air Force as a Second Lieutenant in October, 1968, at the Air Intelligence Training School at Lowry Air Force Base in Aurora, Colorado. After seven months there, I served for a year at Task Force Alpha at Nakhon Phanom RTAFB in Thailand, then at Air Forces Europe headquarters at Wiesbaden, Germany for 33 months. Our second, Madeleine Joan, and third, Kevin Graves, children were born in Wiesbaden. I resigned my commission in May, 1973 and moved to Portland, Oregon. I had received a Masters degree in Public Administration from the University of Oklahoma's Advanced Programs while in Wiesbaden, so I started a career in public service in Portland. Anne taught nursing part-time at the University of Portland. In 1976 I took a job in Eugene, Oregon, so we moved there in June. We have been in Eugene, in the same house, ever since. After a career as an administrator in state and local government and the non-profit sector, I retired in May, 2002. Anne worked for many years in nursing education and home health and hospice nursing and is finishing her career working half-time as coordinator of the nursing program at Lane Community College in Eugene. I have worked as a fast pitch softball and baseball umpire while in Oregon, as well as a high school/community college basketball official for 11 years. Currently, I am waiting to start my 15th year as a track and field official for the University of Oregon. I have been on the javelin and discus crews for 14 years each and am currently the head discus official at Hayward Field. Anne has been on my discus crew five years as well. I am also a regular high handicap golfer. Our children are all married, Madi and Kevin living in Portland and Ma'lis living in Merritt Island, Florida. Madi has a three-year old girl and a 15 month old boy and Kevin has a six-year old boy, so we spend a lot of time back and forth to Portland to see all of them. Also, for two years we have owned a modest second home near the beach in Newport, Oregon, 94 miles from Eugene. That has been a nice getaway for us.
So, it is late October, 2007 and I am updating this profile after about three years. In truth, not much has changed for us over that time. Anne did not finish up working with LCC, as I had indicated earlier, but has been working half time as the Joint Commission specialist (quality control)for Sacred Heart Home Health and Hospice for the last two years. She was the director of that agency for six years in the 90's. She is planning to retire in January and really seems to mean it this time. The important thing to know about Anne is how much she loves her grandchildren and enjoys spending time with them. As for me, I am still enjoying retirement a lot. I read, golf, meet with two men's discussion groups, attend to family and home improvement matters and, of course, in the spring and summer enjoy my primary hobby of track and field officiating. I was fortunate to officiate our last three NCAA Division 1 championships in Sacramento, as well as our last three outdoor national championships in Carson, CA and Indianapolis twice. The 2008 Olympic Track and Field Trials will be held in Eugene next June/July and I hope to be selected to work that meet, too. Finally, for the last two years we have affiliated ourselves with an international organization (based in Eugene)called Beyond War, a group dedicated to the notion that war has become too dangerous and expensive for the world and that we must find alternative ways now to settle our international disputes.
It is now November, 2009 and I am checking in again. We are healthy and happy, as they say. Anne is STILL finding ways to continue working part time for Peacehealth Home Health and Hospice in Eugene. She also is a serial volunteer and super grandmother. She now has another project, as Kevin and his second wife had their first son, Phineus George (Finn) last December. Keyon is now eleven and Madi's kids, Emily and Nick, are now eight and six. So, we are busy with them. My track and field officiating career is going really well. Lately, I served on the seven person discus crew at last year's Olympic Trials in Eugene and last June I was the lead discus official at our USATF outdoor national championships, also in Eugene. We had a great year for traveling in 2009 and look forward to a great 2010, also, including attending our 50th Napa High reunion in August. See you there?
Here we are in mid-August, 2011, and I am reporting in again. Things are fine here in the Willamette Valley, well, as fine as they can be under our national political and economic circumstances. As Anne and I are very, very progressive people (read liberal, if you wish), you can imagine how disappointed we are at what has happened in and to this country in the last 30 years, but particularly in the last ten. Family and friends, wonderful. Our kids have had their economic difficulties, but we have been able to help by advancing part of their inheritances a few years early.
Our grandchildren still number four and it looks like that will hold. We are trying to invest a lot of love in them and are surely part of the "village" which is raising them. Eugene and Oregon are far from perfect, but every time we even dream of moving some place else, we quickly reconsider. Anne continues to be a wonderful partner and I just feel very lucky that that our paths crossed again when they did in 1965. I am pretty well evolved, so as a husband, I guess I am okay. Well, we celebrate our 45th next month, so things must have gone fairly well. And, no, we did not stay together "for the children."
As for activities, Anne still very involved in our family and her original family, still finds opportunities to help PeaceHealth Oregon's home health and hospice agency, and is a terrific community volunteer. We are traveling a little bit. Regarding me, next March I will start my 23rd year of track and field officiating, my primary hobby. Also, I will continue my practice of visiting Civil War battlefields. For me this started in 1991 and most recently I spent a week traveling from Chattanooga to Atlanta in April, tracing the path of General Sherman's Atlanta Campaign in 1864. I make these trips primarily with my brother, Steve, 60, of Chico, California, and our two first cousins, Paul and John Vallerga, formerly of Napa, now of Bend, Oregon.
Last August Anne and I drove to Napa to attend the 50th Reunion of Napa High's Class of 1960 (Wait, could that actually be true?). We have gone to most our our reunions, so their were only a few surprises. We had a very nice time, but have reached the stage that we wish these get togethers were more about the present than about the past.
All for now. Hope anyone reading this is happy and healthy.
It is Saturday morning, March 15, 2014 and I am again reporting in. Things continue to be fine in Eugene. I am looking forward to spending this evening with my son, Kevin, and his son,. Keyon, watching the 5A state basketball tournament finals at Matt (Knight) Court in Eugene. I am a little sore today because I officiated the discus (women and men) and the mens' shot put at yesterday's Lane Community College Preview meet in Eugene for five hours. On March 22, the University of Oregon's season starts. It will be a big year for us track and field fanatics, as we are hosting not only the Diamond League's annual Prefontaine Classic (May 30-31), but also the NCAA Div. 1 outdoor meet ( mid-June), the National Junior meet (July 5-6), and the World Junior meet in Late July. This is the first World Junior meet (the best in the world under 20) in the United States (1,600 athletes from 110 countries). I will be the head discus official for the Prefontaine Classic and the NCAA's and a discus crew member for the other two. Additionally, I'll be on the discus crew for our outdoor national championships in Sacramento in June. Enough of that.
Anne continues to be a wonderful wife, mother, sister, and community volunteer, a very young 71.5, and busy as hell. Our childrens' families have struggled a bit economically in the last five or six years, but we have helped and we are all surviving. Our oldest grandchild is 15.5. The highlight this year has been our 10-year old grandson's playing junior hockey in Portland. Hockey? Who knew? To wrap this up, we continue to be very thankful to have been raised in Napa, educated in the bay area, and to have lived in Oregon, particularly Eugene. We still have contact with Napa friends, get to travel each fall, and still have relatively good health. Our best to you and yours.
It is October 27, 2015, and I am checking in again. ...Expand for more
We just returned from our 55th Napa High School Class of 1960 in Napa on October 10. We had a good time, as usual. Many of our very best high school friends did not attend, but we did get to spend quality time with other classmates with whom we interacted in high school and have gotten to know better over the years because of these reunions. I'm thinking of classmates like Phil Malloy, Tom Malloy, Tom Lowenstein, Bob Holsten, Dick Kuykendall, Karl Lund, Mike Miller, Penny Warren, June Beeler, Bonnie Reams, Darlene Fong, Lynn Scriven (we have a high school history, so have seen each other often over the years), Jackie Weidler, Jacquie Juvinall, and Kathie Quaini. I sure hope we are around in five years and can attend a 60th class reunion.
Life in Eugene goes on more or less as usual. We are aging, of course, but still continue to evolve in the right directions (we hope). Our families continue to provide many opportunities and challenges and I am sure most of you can identify with that sentiment. Anne is still just darling and I am quite proud of her. Her community volunteering continues apace as she has a huge social conscience. Her primary calling at this time is to serve as president of Church Women United, a quite active service organization. In March I will begin my 27th year as a track and field official at the University of Oregon. I still get chosen to work all of the big meets in Eugene and that number is large. Currently waiting to hear if I will work the 2016 Olympic Trials in Eugene next July. I did get to work the '08 and '12 Trials, so this would be the "trifecta." Most likely I will be retired by then, but recently Eugene was chosen to host the World Outdoor Track and Field Championships in 2021. More later.
By the way, we were both saddened to hear of the passing in October of Darryll Hunter and Vern Davidson (as yet unconfirmed, but we know he was very sick at the time of the reunion). We had quality relationships with both of them when we were younger and we will miss both of them.
It is early January, 2018 and it is time to write again. We are "aging in place" in that we have lived in the same home for over 41 years. Symbolically, tomorrow will see the start of three days of cutting down a 49 year old silver maple tree that we share with a neighbor couple. The base of the tree is splitting and my neighbor has become rather afraid of it. It will be hard to part with it, but sometimes good things come to an end. We enjoyed the holidays, as usual, although ours is not a big "holidays" family. We spent New Year's Eve and day with Gretchen Drennen and parts of her family in Portland. Her husband, Bill, whom I have known since we were nine, spent most of the year and the holidays in a memory care facility nearby. Very sad, but not a huge surprise because of a family history (Bill's father).
One of the highlights of 2016 was being reunited with Peggy Wilson Aaron after 50 years of estrangement.. This year we got to see her again, along with Dotia Henderson Scriven and Paula Amen Schmidt. We visited Napa, Healdsburg, Sonoma, Berkeley, and Chico in July and then were horrified to live through the fires which devastated Santa Rosa and parts of Napa in September, In fact, Oregon's wildfires were pretty awful, too. this fall.
Regarding my track and field hobby, I did get chosen to officiate on the discus crews for 2016 Olympic Trials in Eugene, as well as that year's NCAA Championships and the 2017 NCAAs. We are now preparing for the 2018 season, which will be my 29th. I am now playing a more prominent role in the orienting and training of new officials as I become less active on the field. Thanks for being interested enough to read this ongoing story of our lives.
It is now October 2020 and it is time for an update on our life and activities. Things have gone pretty well for us and our friends and family during 2018 and 2019. The latter year was a bit stressful for me physically (I will spare you the details), but 2020 has been much better. Now, of course, we all deal with Covid-19 and its ravages. Anne and I are very compliiant with masking and distancing procedures and are well. Our state and county, after a very good start, are suffering very high infection rates as we work our way through the fall. We personally know only one person who has been infected and he lives in Seattle. Like many of you, we are quite nervous about the election, believing that was desperately need a new president. Regarding my officiating hobby, 2019 was a great year. I served as c0-head official for the four throwing events at the NCAA championships in Austin, Texas in June. That was my first and last assignment to a meet in Texas. I thought the heat was just awful. Then, I was a member of the shot put crew at our USATF national outdoor championships in Des Moines in July. Our 2020 season was completely wiped out by the virus, but we are planning ahead (and hoping) for a season in spring and summer 2021. The UofO has a brand new track and field stadium (probably the best in the world right now) and we are anxious to host the 2021 Olympic Trials and the 2022 World Track and Field Championships. I have been chosen for the shot put crew for the Trials. Anne and I are making a quick trip to Healdsburg, CA this weekend. Her brother-in-law, Bob Mount (Napa High '61 and married for 54 years to her sister, Madeline) passed away from metastatic cancer this Monday) and we are going down for a service for him on the 18th. Bob was a wonderful, generous guy, a great businessman and family man. He will be leaving a huge hole in his immediate and extended families. Also, we had another death in the family this year. Anne's big brother, Paul, fell victim to cancer, as well. Paul and wife Nancy lived in Pennsylvania, so we did not see him at the end. He left behind five children. I hope to write more in a couple of years. We hope you all take care and stay well!
It is a quiet, warm afternoon in Eugene on May, 19, 2023 and I thought I should write again. It has been a while! I last wrote 2.5 years ago. I had failed to mention that we were fortunate to have two brief vacations in late 2019 and early 2020, just before Covid-19 took over. In October, 2019, we got to spend two weeks in Australia, thanks to Anne's younger sister, Judith. She is a documentary film maker and lives with her mate in Brisbane. We spent a week with them there, two days at Manly, two days in Sydney, and one day in Melbourne. We had a wonderful time! Then, at the end of January, 2020 we spent a week at Buena Vista, Baja Sur, Mexico with our good friends Beverlee and John Potter. They have a home in this little expat community on the Sea of Cortez. Lots of sun and places to see in the area. We particularly enjoy La Paz.
So, I was all ready to continue my track and field officiating career in the spring of 2021, Oregon's first year in their new stadium. During my very first meet there (April 2, 2021), while leading the discus crew, I felt pain in my left groin after the meet. At first I wrote it off to being out of shape after our season missed because of Covid. But the pain persisted. I consulted my P.A., exercised and got x-rays. I missed a couple of meets, but worked a couple of big local meets, as well as the 2021 Olympic Trials To make a long story short, I was undiagnosed and then misdiagnosed by our care providers. After six months they finally figured out I needed a new hip and I had my replacement operation on December 15, 2021. I have fully recovered from that. However, I have developed neuropathy in my feet and lower legs, complications from 20 years of diabetes. I now walk with a cane and it is not much fun.
The years 2021 and 2022 were not too eventful for us. I have had to cut back on my officiating, retiring from Oregon after last season, but continuing on at Oregon State and Lane Community College last year and this. The family is fine. Our middle child, Madeleine, now 52, has a daughter, Emily, who will graduate from Oregon State in three weeks. Her son, Nick, is going to school at Clackamas Community College near Portland where he also plays on their baseball team. He is quite an athlete, which I, of course, love. Our son, Kevin, a contractor hear in Eugene and his wife, Katie, have a 24-year old son, Keyon and a 14-year old son, Finn. Our biggest news is that our oldest, Mary Elizabeth and her husband, Warren Harvey, have just moved back to Eugene after 20 years in Florida. They hate current Florida politics and were scared badly by the last hurricane in Florida. They were both raised in Eugene so expect to be comfortable back here again. Anne remains a wonderful wife for me. Not only does she continue with this life of social consciousness, but she has been a wonderful nurse to me as I age.
I am looking forward to officiating the Oregon state high school championships later this week in Eugene and we are looking forward to a very nice summer here. We hope you and happy and healthy wherever you are and whatever you are doing in life.
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