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

Notables reminisce about O'Callaghan

Former governor had broad influence

Former Nevada governors, from left, Mike O'Callaghan (1971-79), Robert List (1979-83), Richard Bryan (1983-89) and Bob Miller (1989-99) hold a discussion with Mitch Fox, right, host of KLVX-TV, Channel 10's "Nevada Week in Review," on Nov. 17, 2000. Photo by K.M. Cannon/Review-Journal file photo.

State Sen. Terry Care, D-Las Vegas

Care, talked to O'Callaghan before anyone else when he was trying to decide whether to run for office. But he first met the former governor when Care was a newspaper reporter.

Care, a Vietnam veteran and former Democratic State Party chairman, once wrote an article involving impeached U.S. District Judge Harry Claiborne, former FBI special agent in charge Joe Yablonsky and former Mustang Ranch brothel boss Joe Conforte. The article elicited an early-morning call from O'Callaghan.

"He said, `I read your story this morning, and I think it's chickenshit,' " Care recalled. "At the end of the conversation, he said, `Well, I always enjoy talking to you, soldier to soldier.' "

Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates

Gates said she couldn't have attended college without the help of O'Callaghan. In 1974, O'Callaghan established a program to offer minorities full scholarships to either the University of Nevada, Reno or UNLV.

Atkinson Gates was the first recipient.

"The fact I got an education was because of him," she said.

Reno Mayor Bob Cashell

Cashell recalled that when O'Callaghan was governor, he didn't have a driver and would usually make a pit stop at the mansion each day to fix up a dozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

"Then he'd say, 'Let's go,' and we went down to the valley just out of town. And he'd honk the horn, and a bunch of homeless people would come out for the sandwiches," Cashell said. "Many, many days he would take them. That's just who he was."

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Reid remembered one Nevada Day when, during a parade in Carson City, he fell and injured his leg. While at the Carson Tahoe Hospital, the doctor told Reid his leg looked raw, like the stump of an amputee.

Reid told the doctor his friend, Mike O'Callaghan, had an artificial leg.

The doctor told Reid that when he was a teenager in Carson City, he had been in a terrible car accident and was flown to California, where his leg was amputated. Days later, the governor of Nevada was in his hospital room.

"He flew over and told him it wasn't so bad," Reid said. "Whereever you went, you found someone touched by O'Callaghan."

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.

Berkley was a college student in 1972 when she was elected a delegate to the Democratic National Convention.

"I didn't have two nickels to rub together," Berkley said. "Out of the blue, I got a phone call very early in the morning, and I didn't know who it was. But he told me to go down to Caesars Palace that morning and talk to (Caesars President) Bill Weinberger.

"I asked, 'Who is this?' and he said, 'It's Mike O'Callaghan. Get down there.' "

Berkley went to Weinberger's office. Not knowing the young woman at all, Weinberger handed Berkley a check.

"To tell you the impact that made in my life, there's no way I could ever repay Mike O'Callaghan for that."

Jan Smith

Smith who ran O'Callaghan's Las Vegas office when he was governor, remembered that during a campaign swing in Hawthorne, their entourage stopped for lunch at the El Capitan casino.

"There were two or three black people among us," Smith said. "We didn't get a good reception, and finally we were told they wouldn't serve us until the black people left. We left. He cared strongly about integration."

Al Davis

Oakland Raiders owner Davis befriended O'Callaghan years before he became governor.

"Coach (John) Madden and his wife and family would go with us, them at Dunes and us at the Desert Inn, and I met Mike while I was there," Davis said Friday in a phone interview on his way to his Bay area office.

O'Callaghan proved to be a loyal Raiders fan over the next 30 years.

"When we were doing great, he was happy; when we weren't, he was down," Davis said.

The team owner forged a strong bond with O'Callaghan, a connection that Davis said he rarely feels with men outside of sports.

"He used to come to our games, and he became a great friend, not a good friend," Davis said. "There was a trust and a respect and appreciation for the other person, as much as men can do. He never played for us, but if he did, he would've done it with class, poise and with pride."

O'Callaghan regaled Sun reporters with personal stories to match almost any topic.

Once, when he inquired about the medical malpractice issue, he was told the topic was too confrontational.

"I killed a man with my bare hands (as a soldier). I think I can handle that," he said.