Mike O'Callaghan

{{Infobox officeholder

|name = Mike O'Callaghan

|image = Mike O'Callaghan.jpg

|alt =

|caption =

|order = 23rd

|office = Governor of Nevada

|term_start = January 4, 1971

|term_end = January 1, 1979

|lieutenant = Harry Reid (1971–1975)
Robert E. Rose (1975–1979)

|predecessor = Paul Laxalt

|successor = Robert List

|birth_name = Donal Neil O'Callaghan

|birth_date = {{birth date|1929|9|10}}

|birth_place = La Crosse, Wisconsin, U.S.

|death_date = {{death date and age|2004|3|5|1929|9|10}}

|death_place = Paradise, Nevada, U.S.

|nationality =

|occupation =

|profession =

|resting_place = Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery
Boulder City, Nevada, U.S.

|spouse = {{marriage|Carolyn Randall|October 25, 1954}}

|relations =

|children = 5

|alma_mater = University of Idaho

|party = Democratic

|allegiance = United States

|branch = United States Marine Corps
United States Air Force
United States Army

|serviceyears = 1946–1948
1950–1952

|battles = Korean War

|mawards = 20px Bronze Star
20px Silver Star
20px Purple Heart

}}

Donal Neil "Mike" O'Callaghan (September 10, 1929{{spaced ndash}} March 5, 2004) was an American politician and educator who served as the 23rd Governor of Nevada from 1971 to 1979. He was a member of the Democratic Party.{{cite web|title=Nevada governor Mike O'Callaghan|url=http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.29fab9fb4add37305ddcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=ad58224971c81010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD&vgnextchannel=e449a0ca9e3f1010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD|work=National Governors Association|access-date=June 18, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110516111032/http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.29fab9fb4add37305ddcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=ad58224971c81010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD&vgnextchannel=e449a0ca9e3f1010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD|archive-date=May 16, 2011}}

Early life

Born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, O'Callaghan later moved to Sparta, where his family subsistence farmed.{{cite news|url=http://www.lvrj.com/1st100/part3/ocallaghan.html|newspaper=Las Vegas Review-Journal|last=Hopkins|first=A.D.|title=Mike O'Callaghan: The Popular Pugilist| date=September 12, 1999}} He lied about his age to join the U.S. Marine Corps, at the age of 16 and served from 1946 to 1948.

He attended Boise Junior College and joined the U.S. Air Force in 1950 and served as an intelligence operator in the Aleutian Islands. O'Callaghan was transferred to the U.S. Army in 1952 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 and returned to the United States.

O'Callaghan resumed his college studies at the University of Idaho in Moscow, where he was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity,{{cite web |title=Distinguished Alumni |url=https://www.tke.org/about/distinguished-alumni |publisher=Tau Kappa Epsilon |access-date=November 23, 2023}} and completed his bachelor's and master's degree in education in 1956,{{cite web |url=http://issuu.com/uidahodigital/docs/gem1956/54 |publisher=Gem of the Mountains, University of Idaho yearbook |title=Graduate school |year=1956 |page=50}} then became a high school teacher and boxing coach in Nevada.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FrxeAAAAIBAJ&pg=6227%2C5468795|newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune|location=Idaho|title=Nevada governor among Idaho alumni honored this weekend| date=May 25, 1971|page=10}} He was U.S. Senator Harry Reid's history teacher at Basic High School in Henderson and later promoted Reid's political career. From 1961 to 1963, he was the chief probation officer and director of court services for Clark County.

Political career

O'Callaghan's political career began in 1963, when Governor Grant Sawyer appointed him to head the state's new department of health and welfare. 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, Edward Fike. He proved to be an extremely popular governor and was re-elected in 1974 by a four-to-one margin, the greatest landslide in a gubernatorial election in state history.

The last Nevada governor before term limits, who was eligible for an elected third term, O'Callaghan chose not to run again in 1978. After he left office O'Callaghan became the executive editor of the Las Vegas Sun, a job he held until his death in 2004. He was also the publisher of the Henderson Home News and Boulder City News. In the 1990s, O'Callaghan monitored elections in Nicaragua and northern Iraq, and was a strong supporter of the nation of Israel.

Death

Mike O'Callaghan died on March 5, 2004, of a heart attack at the age of 74, after collapsing during the morning mass hours at the Saint Viator Catholic Church in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was pronounced dead at the Desert Springs Hospital in Paradise, Nevada.{{cite news |last1=Vogel |first1=Ed |last2=Kalil |first2=J. M. |url=http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Sep-06-Sun-2004/news/23373909.html |title='Governor Mike' dies: State mourns man of courage, generosity, determination |work=Las Vegas Review Journal |date=September 6, 2004 |access-date=October 15, 2011}}{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/08/national/08OCAL.html |title=Mike O'Callaghan, 74, Nevada Governor, Is Dead |work=The New York Times |agency=Associated Press |date=March 8, 2004 |access-date=October 15, 2011}} His widow Carolyn, a native of Twin Falls, Idaho, died seven months later on October 7, 2004, of complications from cardiac surgery, at the age of 68. They were married on October 25, 1954, in Twin Falls, Idaho and had five children; the former governor died one month before their 50th anniversary.{{cite web|url=http://www.unr.edu/nwhp/bios/nv1st/ocallaghan.html|publisher=Nevada Women's History Project|title=Nevada's First Ladies: Carolyn O'Callaghan|access-date=October 20, 2012|archive-date=November 10, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141110125324/http://www.unr.edu/nwhp/bios/nv1st/ocallaghan.html|url-status=dead}} Both are interred at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City, Nevada.

Legacy

O'Callaghan's legacy as Nevada politician and philanthropist survives through three structures that bear his name. Mike O'Callaghan Middle School opened on the east side of Las Vegas in 1991. The Mike O'Callaghan Federal Hospital is located on Nellis Air Force Base northeast of Las Vegas. A bridge that is a part of the highway bypass around the Hoover Dam, spanning the Colorado River between Nevada and Arizona, bears O'Callaghan's name, as well as that of former NFL Arizona Cardinals player and U.S. Army veteran Pat Tillman. Tillman died in a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan. The Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge was completed on October 14, 2010.{{harvnb|Illia|Cho|2010|p=1}} Also in 2010, The O'Callaghan Resource Integrated Oncology Network (ORION) Cancer Foundation, a nonprofit charity that assists cancer patients in Nevada was established in honor of Mike and Carolyn O'Callaghan, both cancer survivors.

References

Citations

{{Cite web |last1=Illia |first1=Tony |last2=Cho |first2=Aileen |date=January 5, 2010 |title=Buffeted by High Winds and Setbacks, a Bypass Is Making History Near Hoover Dam |url=http://southwest.construction.com/features/2010/0105_HooverDamBypass-1.asp |access-date=October 15, 2011 |pages=1–3 |postscript=. Same title but no timeline.}}

External links

[https://archive.today/20130415110740/http://nsla.nevadaculture.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2020:ocallaghan-biography&catid=234 Nevada State Library & Archives] – Mike O'Callaghan biography
[http://www.nga.org/cms/home/governors/past-governors-bios/page_nevada/col2-content/main-content-list/title_o-callaghan_mike.html National Governor's Association: profile] – Mike O'Callaghan
[http://www.uidaho.edu/alumni/archive/alumni/needs-archiving/halloffamerecipients/1970s/1971 University of Idaho Alumni Hall of Fame] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20121215030413/http://www.uidaho.edu/alumni/archive/alumni/needs-archiving/halloffamerecipients/1970s/1971 |date=December 15, 2012 }} – 1971 inductees
{{Find a Grave|8473910}}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20040317163623/http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2004/mar/05/516473934.html Las Vegas SUN obituary]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20040317232649/http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2004/mar/06/516478684.html Las Vegas SUN remembrance]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20040323161025/http://lvcitylife.com/articles/2004/03/10/media_watch/mediawatch.txt Las Vegas CityLife remembrance]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20070312205942/http://ocallaghanms.org/ Mike O'Callaghan Middle School web site]