Bernie O'Connor

TH: How did you end up choosing Loras College?
O'Connor: I worked for a mortuary service in Council Bluffs. The owner went to Loras. Sue and I were married, and school wasn't my direction then at all. After high school, I worked in the railroad community in Omaha-Council Bluffs. The owner just says, "Why don't you look at Loras, Bernie?" He'd tell me about it. He liked it a lot. And I did.

TH: You graduated from Loras in 1959, at age 29, and started at Wahlert. What do you remember about the first day of Wahlert High School?
O'Connor: As a matter of fact, I was so anxious to get there and felt so good about it, I went out several times in the summer and just nosed my way around a little bit. I stepped in to look around and three or four guys were laying the gym floor. The guy says, "Hey, what are you doing here? I said, "I just came to look." "Nah, this is a big job. We don't want any interruptions or anything." But very impressed. Size-wise, very impressed. And the first day of school with the young people in there -I think we began with about 1,700 or 1,800 students - corridors and lunch halls. Yeah, it was a little different than coming from Council Bluffs, Iowa, and St. Francis High School.

TH: What advice might you share with say younger parents who do face some of the challenges and the tragedies that they have to endure?
O'Connor: Right. Our little girl, Bridget, going through cancer was very, very tough on me as a person and a male. But my wife, Sue, I just couldn't believe how tough it is. And certainly I can understand more now than ever. Yeah, that was really tough. Five years old. But going through that, you've got to stick together and stick with them, no matter what. Hopefully, your partner -- your wife or your husband -- has to be, I don't want to say on the same page, but you both have to understand. Very much so.

TH: Regarding the new Bernie O'Connor tennis facility at Wahlert. I hear that there is not a better facility for high school athletes, maybe even college athletes anywhere in the state.
O'Connor: That's what I've been told. Somebody told me it's going to be someone that knows somebody that's in USTA (U.S. Tennis Association) or something like that is going to have them do a story on just the courts and stuff. It is first class. I've seen a lot of them and they're good. I just know that the way it's done and the way it was done and professionalism of it and the layout of it, it's as good as any that I have gone through and played on with our kids in tournaments and things. Our tennis kids at school are really delighted with it.