Mike O'Callaghan

Donal Neil "Mike" O'Callaghan (September 10, 1929 March 5, 2004) was the governor of the U.S. state of Nevada from 1971 until 1979. He was a member of the Democratic Party.

Early life

Born in 1929 in La Crosse, Wisconsin, O'Callaghan lied about his age to join the Marines at 16 and served until 1948. In 1950 he joined the Air Force and served as an intelligence operator in the Aleutian Islands. He transferred to the Army in 1952 in order to see combat and lost part of his left leg after being hit by a mortar round during a battle in the Korean War. He was awarded the Silver Star and Bronze Star. After his return to the United States, he became a high school teacher and boxing coach. He was Sen. Harry Reid's history teacher at Basic High School in Henderson, Nevada, and later promoted Harry's political career.

Political career

O'Callaghan's political career began in 1963, when then-Nevada Governor Grant Sawyer appointed Mike to head the new Department of Human Resources. In 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed O'Callaghan to be the regional director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness.

In 1966, O'Callaghan ran in the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor, but lost. In 1970, he received the Democratic gubernatorial nomination and won a surprising victory in the general election over his Republican opponent, Lieutenant Governor Ed Fike. He proved to be an extremely popular governor and was reelected in 1974 by a 4 to 1 margin, the greatest landslide in a gubernatorial election in state history. He has been said to be the most popular governor in state history.

Still, he did not run for a third term and instead became executive editor of the Las Vegas Sun, a job he held until his death. He was also the publisher of the Henderson Home News and Boulder City News. In the 1990s he monitored elections in Nicaragua and northern Iraq, and was a strong supporter of Israel. In 1991 Mike O'Callaghan Middle School was built and named after him. On March 5, 2004, Mike O'Callaghan died of a heart attack after collapsing during morning Mass in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Legacy

O'Callaghan's legacy as Nevada politician and philanthropist is survived through two structures that bear his name. The first of which is Mike O'Callaghan Middle School, which opened on the eastside of Las Vegas in 1991. A bridge that is a part of highway bypass around the Hoover Dam will bear O'Callaghan's name as well as former NFL player and Army veteran Pat Tillman's name. When completed in 2010, the Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge will span the Colorado River between Nevada and Arizona.

External links

• Las Vegas SUN obituary
• Las Vegas SUN remembrance
• Las Vegas CityLife remembrance
• New York Times obituary (registration required)
• Las Vegas Review-Journal obituary
• State of Nevada memorial page
• Mike O'Callaghan Middle School web site