James Francis O'Brien Jr.
Social Worker
My father, James Francis O'Brien Jr. (b. 11/13/1928, d. 11/11/2007) was a social worker with an MSW degree from Wayne State University. He mentioned in conversations at home about his association with the Wayne County Training School from time to time. I will have to check with my sister if there are any artifacts or oral history available about his work there. I clearly remember my mother, Therese Marie Blaney (b. 02/07/1927, d. 12/04/2011), occasionally trying to call his work at the Wayne County Training School which in those days was a 'toll call.' Our home address was at 13151 Birwood in Detroit. Although the house is still standing, a number of neighbors were forced to move from that area due to the upcoming construction for the I-96 Express / Jeffries Freeway and their homes were demolished. I recall the pastor (Fr. Brennan) of our church, St. Brigid, went on TV appealing to stop construction because it would hurt the parish, which it did. I was only 10 when they moved c. October 1965 for his new job in Houghton, MI in the Upper Peninsula, also known as the "Copper Country." I remember seeing a photo of him and his brother, Uncle John, in navy uniforms on a ship; I'm not clear of what class of service that was, but I think it was short. My parents met in the Newman Club (a Catholic university student organization) at Wayne State while there as students; they were married on 06/16/1951 and had eleven children. Prior to university, he attended the University of Detroit High School (Jesuit) where he met his lifelong good friend. John J. "Jack" O'Keefe (b. 1930, d. 2008) who lived later in Ann Arbor, MI. After leaving Detroit, my father continued to work in the social work / mental health field for the remainder of his life throughout Michigan (Houghton, Saginaw, Petoskey, et al) usually as an Executive Director of community mental health organizations. Prior to retiring, his final job was working in the Jackson state prison for a Guatemalan psychiatrist there as a counselor for prisoners. Both of his siblings lived in the Detroit metropolitan area or suburbs: his brother, Hon. John J. O'Brien (d. 2016), had been an attorney and probate judge; I believe his sister, Rosemary O'Brien DeMarois, was a special education teacher. My grandfather, James F. O'Brien Sr. was a civil engineer for the electric utility company in Detroit. My grandmother, Mary Hasted O'Brien, herself an orphan with 2 other siblings, had been a nurse during WW1 which is how she met my grandfather in the hospital - he had been wounded in Russia; she died from a from of leukemia/cancer when my father was only 7 years old.
Matthew O'Brien
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