Donal Neil "Mike" O'Callaghan (September 10, 1929 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.

Early life

Born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, O'Callaghan later moved to Sparta, where his family subsistence farmed. 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, and completed his bachelor's and master's degree in education in 1956, then became a high school teacher and boxing coach in Nevada. 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. 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 August 21, 1954, in Twin Falls, Idaho and had five children; the former governor died one month before their 50th anniversary. 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. 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

  • Nevada State Library & Archives – Mike O'Callaghan biography
  • National Governor's Association: profile – Mike O'Callaghan
  • University of Idaho Alumni Hall of Fame – 1971 inductees
  • Las Vegas SUN obituary
  • Las Vegas SUN remembrance
  • Las Vegas CityLife remembrance
  • Mike O'Callaghan Middle School web site