Br. Michael Joseph O'Hara, OP

Brother Michael was born in Philadelphia on February 14, 1909 and given the name Joseph Patrick.  He attended the apostolic school of the Dominican Order in Columbus, Ohio, and began studies at Providence College in Rhode Island when the Depression forced him to leave school and support his family.  For several years, he worked as a mimic in a traveling circus, as well as a dog trainer.  During the years of World War II, he served in the North African campaign as an army officer.  After the war, he worked as a speech therapist at the Chevalier-Jackson Bronoscopic Ward at Temple University in Philadelphia.  Blessed with a strong voice he was hired as a radio newscaster.

In 1956, he decided once again to enter the Dominican Order.  On March 19 of that year, he received the habit as a Cooperator Brother at St. Albert's Priory.  A year later, he made simple profession at Blessed Sacrament Priory in Seattle, where he took solemn vows six years afterward.  In January 1969, he was reassigned to St. Albert's in Oakland.  In addition to housekeeping chores at the Priory, he attended classes at the University of California, and for five years was a speech therapist at the Ellen K. Raskob Institute at Holy Names College.  With his tape recorder, he worked hours and hours with small children, patiently helping them overcome their speech defects.

He was enthusiastic about his work. He was even more enthusiastic about devotion to the Blessed Mother.  He took care that her shrines at the Priory were kept in good repair, and only less than a year before his death he managed to make a pilgrimage to Lourdes, a high point in his life.  During his last years, he suffered from emphysema and other ailments that caused him to be hospitalized at St. Elizabeth's hospital in Houston where he died of a heart attack on June 2, 1974.  The funeral Mass was held at St. Albert's and he is buried at St. Dominic's cemetery, Benicia.

From a letter written  by John Fearon, O.P.

July 17, 1974 as printed in the parish magazine, Blessed Sacrament Church, Seattle, WA

As to my own recollections of Michael, I lived across the hall from him in Seattle for nine years.  And I visited him regularly the last two years while he was in Oakland and I have been popping in and out of St. Albert's.

One of the most obvious things about the real Michael was his devotion to Our Lady.  He tended her shrine in the church; he had a little shrine in his room.  But he also prayed to her daily, more frequently than most.  And some of his prayers were fairly urgent, e.g. will power to give up smoking (he had emphysema) and to follow the strict regimen which his other serious ailments made necessary.  He even went to Lourdes with his petitions.  No miracles happened in answer to his prayers.  At best, he got strength to do what he knew he should do – at least for a while.  In fact, that was the story of much of his life during the time I knew him.  The fact that he failed, never for a second lessened his confidence in Her.

I suppose that another conspicuous fact about him was that he was very much a conservative, both politically and in religious matters.  As a veteran, he found peace resisters impossible to understand.  With his simple piety, he found rearrangements in the church such as Latin to English and everything else, quite difficult to live with.  And he lived himself in a world which was black and white, not heavy on the gray, like myself.  He was stubborn and not particularly open and adaptable, either.  So life as he experienced it over the past ten years was not easy.  He was very much the patriot, the ardent Catholic, the dedicated Dominican.  Michael stands for a whole breed, a whole generation, in this regard.  With some frequency he yielded to the temptation to be bitter and resentful.

However, before he died, there was a complete change in attitude.  A serenity and peace.  Some of the older Brothers who are much like him think it was a miracle and they confide in me that Michael is helping them from heaven.    So terminal illness and the Houston hospital experience plus God's grace did bring about a change in Michael that relieved him of his frustration and disappointments.

These past years in Oakland he had been working with children who have a speech problem.  With his tape recorder, he worked hours and hours with small kids, patiently getting rid of speech defects and making improvements.  He was quite enthusiastic about this work.  He was enthusiastic and proud about most of the things he did, his years in the dog show business, his military service, his care of the church, the priory, etc., in Seattle.  But in the end he stumbled across a kind of work, which made use of a God given talent, his voice, his ability to read and his ability to teach others to read.  I suppose the ability to take delight and pleasure in certain things is a tip-off to what a man is like inside.

He started early in life to be a Dominican priest, but had to give up on that because of a death in the family, and the Depression.  But on this point he bore no grudges with God's plan.  He was proud of being a Brother.  Of being a Dominican.

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