Richard Maurice O'Brien

Richard Maurice O’Brien (a.k.a. ‘Scoop’)

April 6, 1930 – Aug. 20, 2010

Richard O’Brien joined the Navy in 1953, where he met his wife. In 1954, they married.

During the Vietnam War, he served on the hospital ship U.S.S. Sanctuary. He was proud of his time in the Navy. He retired in 1973 as Chief Hospital Corpsman.

After leaving the Navy, he went all over the country as a drug and alcohol counselor for the military men and women. He later worked for the San Diego Chapter of the National Council on Alcoholism and taught classes at the University of San Diego.

In 1980, he went back to school and studied several subjects including geology, archaeology, and photography. He was a man who was interested in many things and always loved learning new things.

He landed a job at the Fallbrook Enterprise newspaper in 1982 and found a lifetime love for taking pictures and participating in Local Events.

When the Enterprise was purchased by the North County Times, he worked for them until the Village News was started in late 1997.

He loved his job and he loved all the people he met in the course of it. He had a great sense of humor and enjoyed making people laugh.

He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Willy O’Brien; his three children and their spouses, Tim and Debbie O’Brien, Terry and Debra O’Brien, and David and Kerry Doney; 11 grandchildren, Maureen, Molly, Troy, Sean, Matt, J.C., Dylan, Joshua, Brandon, Lucas, and Eric; four great grandchildren, Katie, Luke, Allie and Serenity.

His family invites you to come celebrate his life on Sat., Sept. 4 at 1 p.m. at the Hilltop Center for Spiritual Living, 331 E. Elder Street, Fallbrook, Calif. The celebration will be followed by a light luncheon.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to his favorite charities: Rainbow Valley Grange, c/o 210 W. Vermont Ave. #106, Escondido, CA 92025, or Fallbrook Future Farmers of America (FFA), Attn. Doug Sehnert, Ag Dept., Fallbrook Union High School, 2400 S. Stage Coach Lane, Fallbrook, CA 92028.

My Favorite Photographer

It’s the time,

That’s been looming before me

That day in the future has come

It’s the time

I look behind and see

A lifetime and all it has done

Born a son of the windy city

The year after Wall Street had fell

With a future full of possibility

And an appetite a lifetime can’t quell

At 22 he became a young sailor

A corpsman to heal and save lives

He never spoke of Vietnam to us

but he looked back on his service with pride

He inspired a lot of folks to find meaning

from the actions they had lived to regret

He always answered their call in the nighttime

Those sponsored remain in his debt

He retired with a lifetime before him

went back to school and found a new muse

and through the lens of his 35mm

He found our Fallbrook and brought us the news

For 27 years he memorialized our innocence

showed us just how we appear

the moments that make life a miracle

In a twinkling I see it so clear

On Thursday mornings it was fun to discover

what was happening in our little town

through the eyes of my favorite photographer

and the camera he could never put down...