‘They were kindred spirits’: Conan O’Brien reflects on parents after they died days apart

Conan O’Brien reflected on the memories of his late parents, Dr. Thomas O’Brien and Ruth Reardon O’Brien, after they died three days apart last week.

The former late night host, in a Boston Globe piecetalked about growing up in his hometown of Brookline, Massachusetts, noting how his parents “complemented each other very well.”

Conan O’Brien’s father, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, known for his work in resistance to antibioticsdied on December 9 at the age of 95 after “his health failed him”, the Globe noted in an obituary.

O’Brien’s mother, a lawyer and only the second female partner at the Boston-based law firm Ropes & Gray, died “peacefully” on December 12 at the age of 92, according to an obituary. shared by Bell O’Dea Funeral Home of Brookline.

“I think what my mother and father saw in each other was that they were kindred spirits,” O’Brien told the Globe.

“They worked incredibly hard and were disciplined.”

The two shared six children and nine grandchildren and were married for 66 years.

The causes of their deaths have not yet been revealed to the public.

His father was a “student of humor” and a fan of late-night talk shows, as he made sure his children “knew comedy classics” from the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Jack Benny and the Marx Brothers. the Globe noted in an obituary.

“The loudest I ever heard anyone laugh was when I was sitting next to him in a theater watching Peter Sellers in a ‘Pink Panther’ movie,” O’Brien said of his “fantastic husband” of a father he called the ‘funniest man’. in the room.”

O’Brien – who hosted the travel show “Conan Without Borders” and its follow-up “Conan O’Brien Must Go” – praised his father for giving him “the travel bug” at a young age.

“He took me on a trip to South America when I was, I think, in seventh grade,” the former late night host recalls.

“He thought, ‘You’re going to learn more for a week and a half traveling through these different neighborhoods and cities in South America than you will in public school in Brookline.’”

He described his father as a “dreamer,” someone who went to Peru and brought a change of clothes in a suitcase in the hope of launching a hospital website “high in the mountains.”

O’Brien’s mother was a “realist,” he noted, because she “really took care of it” by making sure her young children ate, emphasizing their health, and preparing clothes for them.

“She does all that mother stuff and when that was done, she rushed to a phone booth and became Ruth O’Brien, the second female partner at Ropes & Gray,” he said of his “heroic” mother.

He added that the “beauty” of his father’s legacy is his compassion and deep care for others, while his mother’s “bottomless generosity” showed her care for those around her.

A funeral mass was held for the couple in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, on Wednesday.

O’Brien will host the Academy Awards in March.