Mike O'Callaghan

Donal Neil "Mike" O'Callaghan (September 10, 1929 – March 5, 2004) was an American politician. He was the 23rd Governor of the U.S. state of Nevada from 1971 to 1979. He was a member of the Democratic Party.

Early life
Born in 1929 in La Crosse, Wisconsin, O'Callaghan later lived in Sparta, Wisconsin, where his family subsistence farmed. He lied about his age to join the Marines at 16 and served until 1948. He attended Boise Junior College and joined the Air Force in 1950 and served as an intelligence operator in the Aleutian Islands. O'Callaghan transferred to the Army in 1952 in order to see combat and lost part of his left leg after being hit by a mortar round during a battle in the Korean War. He was awarded the Silver Star and Bronze Star and returned to the United States. He attended the University of Idaho in Moscow and completed his bachelor's and master's degree in education in 1956, then became a high school teacher and boxing coach in Nevada. He was U.S. Senator Harry Reid's history teacher at Basic High School in Henderson, and later promoted Reid's political career. From 1961–63, he was the chief probation officer and director of court services for Clark County.

Political career
O'Callaghan's political career began in 1963, when Governor Grant Sawyer appointed him to head the state's new department of health and welfare. In 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed O'Callaghan to be the regional director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness.

In 1966, O'Callaghan ran in the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor, but lost. In 1970, he received the Democratic gubernatorial nomination and won a surprising victory in the general election over his Republican opponent, Edward Fike. He proved to be an extremely popular governor and was reelected in 1974 by a four-to-one margin, the greatest landslide in a gubernatorial election in state history.

The last Nevada governor who was eligible for a third term, he chose not to run in 1978. After he left office he became the executive editor of the Las Vegas Sun, a job he held until his death. He was also the publisher of the Henderson Home News and Boulder City News. In the 1990s he monitored elections in Nicaragua and northern Iraq, and was a strong supporter of Israel.

Death
O'Callaghan died on March 5, 2004, of a heart attack at the age of 74, after collapsing during the morning mass hours at Saint Viator Catholic Church in Las Vegas, Nevada. His widow Carolyn, a native of Twin Falls, Idaho, died five months later in August 2004 at age 68. They were married in 1954 in Twin Falls and had five children; the governor died several months before their fiftieth anniversary.

Legacy
O'Callaghan's legacy as Nevada politician and philanthropist survives through three structures that bear his name. Mike O'Callaghan Middle School opened on the east side of Las Vegas in 1991. The Mike O'Callaghan Federal Hospital is located on Nellis Air Force Base northeast of Las Vegas. A bridge that is a part of the highway bypass around the Hoover Dam, spanning the Colorado River between Nevada and Arizona, bears O'Callaghan's name as well as that of former NFL player and U.S. Army veteran Pat Tillman. The Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge was completed in October 2010. Also in 2010, The O’Callaghan Resource Integrated Oncology Network (ORION) Cancer Foundation, a nonprofit charity that assists cancer patients in Nevada was established in honor Mike and Carolyn O’Callaghan, both cancer survivors. "Construction of the main crossing across Black Canyon, 'The Mike O'Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge'—named after former Nevada Gov. Mike O'Callaghan and professional football star Pat Tillman, killed as a soldier in Afghanistan—has not gone as smoothly as the approach work."