Concordia mourns the passing of Father John O’Brien, S.J.

Among these were author, photographer and filmmaker Charles Gagnon, Miroslav Malik, who was instrumental in the conception and design of the Czech Pavilion at Expo 67, Gail Valaskakis, who played a significant role in the study and research of communication and mass media impact on Aboriginal and Native communities, and of course Father Marc Gervais, S.J., BA 50, renowned and much treasured film scholar.                  

O’Brien’s professional life took him beyond Concordia. He chaired the Christian Pavilion programming committee for Montreal’s Expo 67 world fair. In 1983, he became secretary for Social Communication to the Father General of the Jesuits in Rome, where he helped reshape the training of young Jesuits worldwide.

In his 2011 Loyola Medal acceptance speech, O’Brien said the key to his accomplishments was “being at the right time and at the right place” and “being supported by people who were with me and enjoyed what they were doing.”

O’Brien was active until his illness appeared in early October. His most recent assignment was as advisor to students in training for the Jesuit priesthood at Regis College at the University of Toronto. He returned to Concordia’s Loyola Campus in September and spoke at the reunion.

“Someone said to me today, ‘You were tough!” he told the audience. “And I didn’t apologize because yes, I was tough. Because I really wanted the best from each of you. And if you’re not tough, you’re not going to get the best.”

“But each of you knew I cared.”

Charismatic leader

Donat Taddeo, BA 67, is a former student and long-time colleague of O’Brien. Taddeo remembers taking O’Brien’s first communications class, Mass Media and Society, at Loyola in 1964-65. “He was tough,” Taddeo recalls. “But we knew that he was pushing us to become better students.”

Taddeo, who became a faculty member and held several senior administrative positions at Concordia for nearly three decades, began as Father O’Brien’s administrative assistant in 1972. He worked closely with O’Brien for many years and developed a personal relationship as well.

“He was a great person,” says. “He was one of the first Canadians to earn a PhD in communications, which was still an emerging field in the 1950s. Had he not joined the Jesuits, Jack could have been a major corporate entrepreneur. And he instilled that entrepreneurial spirit in the department and gave it and academic and a social dimension. He was a social entrepreneur long before that term was coined.”

Dennis Murphy, BA 67, was a member of Loyola’s first communication arts graduating class and is also a former Concordia communication studies professor who worked with O’Brien.

Murphy describes the department’s founder as extremely charismatic. “He was a tremendous leader,” Murphy says. “Because of Jack, communication studies focused on social responsibility. He believed that we should train people to think about ethical issues in the media.”

Murphy adds that it was extremely important for O’Brien to attend the 50th anniversary celebrations. “He was thrilled to be there,” Murphy says. “He was in his element.”

“The spirit of Father O’Brien’s vision and leadership lives on in the Department of Communication Studies,” says Sandra Gabriele, associate professor and current chair of the department. “His vision for a department that would make a difference in the media world has been realized many times over in our amazing and accomplished alumni. We proudly continue the tradition he established of teaching our students to be creative thinkers and thoughtful makers of media. We wouldn’t be where we are today — one of the top communication studies programs in the country — without the groundwork Father O’Brien laid.”

“The fact that our communication studies program produced so many highly successful alumni through the years proves that it was not only ahead of its time 50 years ago but remained so under Father’s O’Brien’s guidance and beyond,” says Bram Freedman, Concordia’s vice-president of Advancement and External Relations. “Those alumni owe much of their achievement to Father O’Brien’s skills as a trailblazer and educator.”

“It was wonderful seeing Father O’Brien at Homecoming surrounded by so many of his admirers and former students — he still had a sparkle in his eye,” says Leisha LeCouvie, Concordia’s senior director of Alumni Relations. “Father O’Brien fully represented the Jesuit tradition at Loyola — a man for others. His legacy — like that of so many of his Loyola colleagues and students — will live on through the exceptional educational foundation he built.”

Honouring Father O'Brien

Anyone wishing to make a donation in the name of Father O’Brien can contribute to:

• The Reverend Jack O’Brien, S.J., Bursary Endowment at Concordia University, online at concordia.ca/obrienbursary or by calling 514-848-2424, ext. 3884, or toll free: 1-888-777-3330

Or

• The Jesuit Development Office, 43 Queen’s Park Crescent East, Toronto, Ont.  M5S 2C3