Conan O’Brien shared a heartbreaking tribute to his ‘kindred spirit’ parents who passed away last week within three days of each other.
The comedian, 61, recalled his fond memories of his mom Ruth O’Brien, 92, and dad Dr. Thomas O’Brien, 95, who led successful careers in their own right as an attorney and scientist, respectively.
‘My parents complimented each other very well,’ Conan told the Boston Globe.
He said he and his five siblings would accompany their parents around the world and grew up idolizing them, and described them as ‘incredibly hard-working and disciplined.’
‘My dad was the dreamer. My dad was the one who was saying ‘I’m off to Peru with a change of clothes in my briefcase to try and launch this website for a hospital there high in the mountains,” he recalled.
‘My mother was the realist,’ he continued.
‘As my dad was rushing around doing this incredible work, my mom was the one who really saw to it when we were little kids that we were fed and our clothes were laid out, and that we got to our dental appointments and medical appointments.’
Conan did not share his parents’ cause of death, but said they both passed away in the same bedroom they had shared since December 1962.
Conan O’Brien and his wife, Liza Powel, with his parents Tom and Ruth, backstage on the final night of Late Night with Conan O’Brien on February 20, 2009
Conan paid tribute to his dad, a pioneer in the research of antimicrobial resistance, saying: ‘Science has said there’s no such thing as perpetual motion, but my father was proof that that was wrong’
The comedian’s mother Ruth O’Brien, a renowned Boston lawyer, who passed away just three days after her husband passed
Conan’s father was seen as a pioneer in the research of antimicrobial resistance, focusing on preventing outbreaks of diseases around the world.
His obituary praised him for often travelling to far flung areas of the world to help small, struggling hospitals, where he ‘cultivated a network of physicians, researchers, and technicians whose observations and testing’ were used across the globe.
His talk show host son recalled being taken on these expeditions as a kid, saying: ‘He took me on a trip through South America when I was, I think, in seventh grade.
‘He thought, ‘You’re going to learn more traveling through these various neighborhoods and cities in South America for a week and a half than you will in public school in Brookline.’ I think he put the travel bug in me.’
His mother was just as impressive, as she rose through the ranks of Boston’s legal world to become just the second woman partner at top firm Ropes & Gray – all while raising six children.
Conan described his mother as ‘heroic’, adding: ‘She’s doing all this mom stuff, and when that was done, rushing into a phone booth and becoming Ruth O’Brien.’
Conan described his parents as ‘kindred spirits’ who were ‘incredibly hard-working and disciplined’
Conan’s father was praised for often travelling to far flung areas of the world to help small, struggling hospitals, and often took the young future comedian with him across the globe
The comedian said his parents grew up with little opportunity in poor Catholic households in Boston, which drove them to make sure their children had the chance to succeed.
‘It was very important to her that we were respectable Irish. We were lace curtain Irish,’ Conan said of his mother.
He said Ruth was known in their neighborhood as a go-to for anyone needing help, and if she heard of an elderly neighbor struggling, ‘she would rush in and help take care of their legal problems.’
‘She just had a bottomless generosity and loved feeding people,’ he added.
Despite their commitment to hard work, Conan said he also got his comedy chops from his parents, and said his dad was ‘the most interesting person I’ve ever met.’
‘Science has said there’s no such thing as perpetual motion, but my father was proof that that was wrong,’ Conan said last week upon his father’s passing.
‘My father was in constant motion. And he was interested in everything – absolutely everything … The loudest I’ve ever heard anybody laugh was sitting next to him in a theater watching Peter Sellers in a Pink Panther movie.
‘He was often the funniest guy in the room. And when he would laugh, his whole body would convulse, and he would almost hug himself.
‘For the rest of my time on earth I will be hearing from people who want to talk with me about my dad. I’ve never met anyone like him, and he happens to be my father.
‘If I met him randomly in a hotel lobby, I’d think: ‘Who the hell is this guy? He’s the most interesting person I’ve ever met.’
The couple were remembered by friends and family this week in a double funeral, after over half a century together.
