Published in the March 15, 2018 edition
By BOB TUROSZ
NICK O’BRIEN addresses voters at a Town Meeting. (Transcript File Photo)
NORTH READING — Philip H. O’Brien – always and forever known as “Nick” – died March 2 at the age of 87 and with his passing North Reading lost one of those irreplaceable threads that bind us together as a community.
Nick was many things – a former Selectman of nine years, a member of the town’s Minit and Militia, a history buff, licensed pilot, local businessman and talented mechanic who could fix or tow anything on four wheels. He was a devoted husband of 58 years to his late wife Barbara, whom he always referred to as his “bride,” the proud father of his daughter Jessie and his son P.H. and the doting grandfather of Eva, whom he proudly noted was named after his own mother.
But more than all of these things, Nick O’Brien was a North Reading original, someone who was steeped not only in the history of the community but protective of its welfare. His three consecutive terms as Selectman were served in the late ‘70s and ‘80s, a period when the town was going through significant growing pains and shrinking budgets. In other words, it wasn’t easy, but Nick worked to bridge a very difficult divide between long-time residents and newcomers over how the town government should be run and to improve its professionalism, accountability and performance.
While working at his service station on Route 28, he was famous for wearing shorts all year round, even in the dead of winter. You knew it was really cold outside when Nick capitulated and put on trousers for a day or two. He was a man of many parts – a Reading native who lived most of his life in North Reading, a Boston University graduate who worked at GE, an Air Force veteran of the Korean War, a licensed pilot, local businessman and unsuccessful candidate for state representative and a devoted town meeting goer.
But I will always think of him as a friend who was very patient with a green-behind-the-ears city boy who came up to the country and got his first job as a reporter in a small and somewhat insular town. In those days the Transcript’s office was located at the corner of Route 28 and Lowell Road, right across the street from Nick’s service station. Many’s the time Nick steered me in the right direction or let me know the story behind the scenes when he could have gotten away with “no comment.”
In the last few years he loved to roll through the center of the town or sit at the end of his driveway where he would wave to passersby – Nick knew everyone. My last memory of Nick dates back to one day last fall when I visited him while he was undergoing rehab in Reading. When I walked into the room, Nick was alone, seated by the room’s only window where he was reading the Transcript. It was Thursday, after all, and he wanted to know what was going on. We talked for over an hour, but the conversation kept coming back to a few main topics – his family, mutual friends and what’s new in North Reading. He didn’t want to talk about himself, he wanted to ask about others.
That’s the way it was with Nick. He was someone who gave unstintingly to the community and his legacy is all around us, for he played a large role in making North Reading what it is today.
The author is the retired editor of the North Reading Transcript
