Charles O'Brien, 83, 1970 Democratic candidate for California attorney general who narrowly lost to Evelle Younger
ZapRatz
By Jeanine Benca STAFF WRITER
Article Last Updated: 09/08/2008 08:37:01 PM PDT
http://www.insidebayarea.com/obituaries/ci_10414725
DANVILLE — Charles O'Brien, the 1970 Democratic candidate for state
attorney general who narrowly lost to Evelle Younger, died Sept. 3 at
his Danville home. He was 83.
O'Brien was born Sept. 1, 1925 in Lawrence, Mass. He enlisted in the
Army at 17, serving as an infantry machine gunner in World War II, where
he earned a Purple Heart. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was
part of the effort to liberate Nazi concentration camps, said his son,
Brennan O'Brien of Walnut Creek.
After the war, O'Brien received his law degree from Harvard University
and began practicing law in San Francisco. He worked as a defense
attorney at first, but "switched sides" to become a prosecutor after a
particularly troubling case. According to his son, O'Brien successfully
defended a man who had gotten drunk and hit a woman with a car, breaking
both of her legs. "It was because the other lawyer was completely
incompetent that my dad was able to get (the driver) completely off.
After that, he said, 'I'm not doing defense anymore,' " Brennan O'Brien
said.
Charles O'Brien joined the attorney general's office in 1959 and stayed
through 1970, leaving for brief stints to serve as executive secretary
to Gov. Pat Brown in 1960 and to help with Attorney General Stanley
Mosk's campaign for re-election in 1962. He served as second in command
at the attorney general's office under Mosk and his successor, Thomas Lynch.
In 1970, O'Brien was the Democratic candidate to succeed Lynch. A
central campaign issue was how best to deal with student unrest over the
Vietnam War, Brennan O'Brien said. "My dad's position was that we need
to show (protesters) that they have a place at the table, that the
system is capable of addressing their concerns if they come to the
table," he said.
Charles O'Brien and Younger also disagreed on policies regarding the
mafia. There was widespread concern at the time that East Coast
gangsters might expand their influence to the West Coast, a worry
O'Brien shared and sought to address via state law enforcement. Younger
argued that the attorney general's office was wasting muscle power
fighting an unfounded concern, Brennan O'Brien said.
Brennan O'Brien, who at the time was a student at Green Valley
Elementary School in Danville, recalls how, during the campaign, the
media and Secret Service descended on the then-rural San Ramon Valley.
Security guards escorted him and his siblings to school.
"It was very surreal to see reporters surrounding my dad, just this
regular guy," he said.
Charles O'Brien lost the election by 86,000 votes out of more than 6.2
million votes cast.
He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Marie Theresa Fox; his children:
Brennan O'Brien, Devin O'Brien of Moraga and Erin O'Brien of San Jose;
and nine grandchildren.
Funeral services were held Monday. Memorial donations can be made to
Community Solutions, a nonprofit human services organization run by Erin
O'Brien, at P.O. Box 546, Morgan Hill, CA 95038.
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