Saturday, March 06, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

JANE ANN MORRISON: Mike O'Callaghan's calling card was his compassion, candor

The first time Las Vegas Sun Executive Editor Mike O'Callaghan called me, a reporter at a rival newspaper and trained to be suspicious, I wondered what he wanted.

He paid me a compliment on a story I had written. The former Democratic governor wanted nothing more than to be gracious.

About two or three times a year, I'd get the "This is Mike" call. It was always an unexpected pleasure. And he was equally generous with his time and his compliments with others at the Review-Journal.

"I love to talk to journalists," O'Callaghan said more than once.

As governor, he wasn't afraid of the media. Nor was he afraid to speak his mind.

Myram Borders, former United Press International correspondent, received a lot of "This is Mike" calls at all hours of the day or night during his years as governor.

"This is Mike," he'd start.

For a second, Borders would think "Mike who?" before it kicked in: This was the governor.

"He was not afraid to call you and tell you where to get off," she said. "When he got in a tight spot, as politicians inevitably do, he didn't duck the media, he just faced it head on. And as a result, it usually went away."

She described him as Nevada's most open and accessible governor.

"You'd call the mansion and say, `May I speak to the governor?' and he'd say, `This is him.' "

When his second term as governor ended in 1978, he went to work for the Las Vegas Sun. He didn't hesitate to hammer lawmakers, even friends, when he thought they were wrong. When, in 1989, legislators approved a 300 percent pension increase for themselves, O'Callaghan and the Sun charged forward without mercy.

Many of his personal friends, including Democratic Assemblymen Jack Jeffrey and Danny Thompson, lost their races because news coverage of the issue enraged voters. "He thought the issue was more important than the person," said Nevada Gaming Commissioner Sue Wagner, a Republican state senator at the time.

Harriet Trudell ran his Las Vegas office during his second term and was one of O'Callaghan's closest friends.

"He was magic," she said, still reeling from his unexpected death Friday from an apparent heart attack during Mass.

They went to Mass together at times, Trudell said, laughing between her tears as she told a tale of a political argument about the United Nations during the sacrament.

He told her Mass was part of his daily routine because "it gives me strength every day and it calms me."

O'Callaghan believed in equal rights for women and put women in power in his administration. "He respected women; he was always there to promote you and encourage you," Trudell said.

"When he lost his leg in Korea, he couldn't have told you one of the doctors' names, but he could still tell you every one of the nurses names, because they had given him the will to live again, and he would never forget them," Trudell remembered.

My last memory of him was one of the unexpected "This is Mike" calls.

Centennial High School teacher Donna Hardy spearheaded an effort that has collected 570 boxes of socks, games, gum, candy, cards, books, T-shirts and other useful items to send to the military in Iraq. But since the military said they couldn't send the packages, she was raising money for postage.

I was reluctant to use it in my column because there are many causes, but thought O'Callaghan might. She called him. "He was so unbelievably gracious," Hardy recalled.

On Jan. 30, O'Callaghan wrote a column under the headline "Honoring Living and Dead" about how the Sun was going to continue to give details of personnel killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. He also urged people to help Hardy, whose program is explained at www.bulldogs4troops.us.

Mike O'Callaghan ended his column in his usual direct style: "It's not just 'another GI killed in Iraq today,' it's somebody's kid, husband ... you know."

He also wrote Hardy a personal check for $250.

The man of action, the Korean War veteran, wasn't the kind to merely tell others what to do.

Just before the column ran, he called, thanking me for the tip, wanting nothing, merely being gracious.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at jane@reviewjournal.com or call 383-0275.