The couple were married for 66 years.
US talk show host and comedian Conan O’Brien has sadly lost both of his parents within days of each other.
Dr. Thomas O’Brien, a celebrated infectious disease physician, passed away on Monday at the age of 95, while his wife Ruth Reardon O’Brien, a lawyer, died “peacefully” three days later at the age of 92.
The Boston Globe published a lengthy obituary for Dr O’Brien earlier this week, describing him as a “visionary”.
“(O’Brien) helped pioneer the use of databases that let doctors respond quickly to outbreaks of antibiotic resistance,” wrote Bryan Marquard. “Traveling the world, often to small hospitals in developing nations, he cultivated a network of physicians, researchers, and technicians whose observations and testing became part of a larger effort.
Justin, the youngest Dr. Thomas’ children, described his father as a man who “loved making connections with people”.
“My mother once said she thought he enjoyed her reunions more than she did,” Justin said. “He really loved meeting people and hearing their stories and getting to know them in a very meaningful way.”
Conan attributed his early love of comedy to his Dad’s passion for the arts and remarkable sense of humour.
“The loudest I’ve ever heard anybody laugh was sitting next to him in a theater watching Peter Sellers in a ‘Pink Panther’ movie,” Conan said.
Anyone who only knew Dr. O’Brien through his work “would think, ‘What a fascinating man,’” he added. “But he was often the funniest guy in the room. And when he would laugh, his whole body would convulse and he would almost hug himself.”
“Science has said there’s no such thing as perpetual motion, but my father was proof that that was wrong,” he said. “My father was in constant motion. And he was interested in everything — absolutely everything.”
Thomas and Ruth were married for 66 years, and shared six children together, including Conan and his siblings Neal, Luke, Justin, Jane, and Kate.
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The Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast host went on to share that his father “had a voracious appetite for ideas and people and the crazy variety and irony of life,” and “wanted to go everywhere, meet everybody, see everything, taste everything.”
“For the rest of my time on earth I will be hearing from people who want to talk with me about my dad,” Conan said. “I’ve never met anyone like him, and he happens to be my father. If I met him randomly in a hotel lobby, I’d think, ‘Who the hell is this guy? He’s the most interesting person I’ve ever met.'”
