High school to honor O’Callaghan

Thursday, Feb. 3, 2005 | 10:02 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan exemplified the ideals to which small-town America has long aspired.

After graduating from Cotter High School, a small Catholic institute in Winona, Minn., he went to war, losing a leg in combat. He then became a respected local teacher, was twice elected governor of Nevada and spent a quarter century as a newspaper executive and columnist.

The Cotter student body of about 360 was to have gathered today to pay tribute to O'Callaghan, a member of the Class of '46, who died last March at age 74 while attending morning Mass in Las Vegas.

Two of Donal "Mike" O'Callaghan's sons, Michael and Brian O'Callaghan, were to accept on their late father's behalf Cotter's first-ever Alumni Achievement Award as the highlight of the school's career day festivities.

"The reason we are honoring Mike O'Callaghan is because we want our current students and alumni to realize what a profound effect he had on all of the communities where he was involved," said Katrina Klink, administrator at Cotter High, which was founded in 1911.

"The students have said they were impressed that he was a two-term Nevada governor and that he had earned the Silver Star and Purple Heart in battle. They were excited to see that, like them, he came from our small town and our small school, and that he is a reflection of us."

O'Callaghan, a Democrat who served as Nevada's governor from 1971 to 1978, was from 1978 until last year chairman and executive editor of the Las Vegas Sun.

For 25 years, he penned a column, drawing on his experience not only in politics, but also as a teacher and boxing coach at Basic High, a rancher, an ironworker, a Marine and as a government administrator.

O'Callaghan also served as Las Vegas' chief probation officer and as the state's first health and welfare director. He was regional director in the federal Office of Emergency Preparedness before serving as governor.

O'Callaghan, who grew up on a Minnesota farm, served in the Korean War. He was decorated for trying to rescue other soldiers who were under fire, got hit and lost his left leg below the knee.

Klink said O'Callaghan's son Michael was to tell the students at the campus's St. Cecilia Theatre about his father's war experiences and compare that era to today's war in Iraq.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the Senate minority leader and a protege of O'Callaghan, was to address the students in a short videotape, telling of O'Callaghan's deeds.

Dignitaries who were scheduled to attend today's event included Winona Mayor Jerry Miller, a Cotter Class of '74 graduate.

Other Cotter alumni who were slated to attend the ceremony at the school that is six blocks from the Mississippi River in a town of about 30,000 residents, included marketing company founder Tim Browne and Rhodes Scholar Hugh Joswick.

Other noted Cotter alumni include U.S. Sen. Bob Kierlin, R-Minn., and Dr. Emily Baechler, who has been recognized for her work in Lupus research.