Thomas Michael Patrick Joseph O’Brien

Link to the livestream:

https://livestream.com/npw/events/9810283

Thomas Michael Patrick Joseph O’Brien passed away on Sunday, August 15, 2021 after a courageous battle with prostate cancer. In 2014 he was diagnosed with bladder cancer and four years later was pronounced to be in remission. He was able to conquer the first cancer but it raised its ugly head in 2021 to conquer him.

He was preceded in death by his parents Mary Heno O’Brien and Jerome Joseph O’Brien (Jerry) and his daughter Traci Marie O’Brien Westlake.
He leaves behind his beloved wife Mary Christian (Chrissie) Grant O’Brien who was his world, his daughters Kim O’Brien Jordan of Culver City, California; Karin Christeen O’Brien of Carlsbad, CA, Terin O’Brien Johnston and husband Dara Johnston of Australia, Kelly Williamson, Robert Williamson and his wife Robin. He is also survived by his grandchildren Max Jordan, Spencer O’Brien, Raen Johnston, Blaine and Grant Williamson. He leaves behind many friends and relatives all of whom he has pledged to watch over from the campfire in the sky.

Thomas was born at the Herman Hospital, Houston, Texas on May 17, 1933. For the first few years of his life he lived in Houston in the Warwick Hotel which is now Hotel ZaZa. It is ironic that Hotel ZaZa was the place he called home when he traveled to Houston for his appointments at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

As his parents began to move often in association with his father’s position as an oil man, Thomas attended San Diego Army Navy Military Academy in San Diego, Black Fox Academy in West Los Angeles, Southwestern Military Academy in San Marino, California. This was all during the time of World War II and Thomas, as a cadet, was doing his part for the war effort by marching at school with a rifle with no firing pin. Finally in 1948, his parents settled in San Antonio, Texas where he attended Texas Military Institute before entering Alamo Heights High School.
At Alamo Heights he lettered in football, track and basketball but it was in basketball where he truly excelled. He was a member of the 1952 State Championship Basketball team which captured both the III-A and IV-A titles in the same year, a feat that will never be equaled again. He was one of the four men on that AHHS team who made All-state from the same team, in the same year, from the same school. That also was a once in a lifetime occurrence.

He then went on to UCLA to play basketball for the legendary John Wooden and followed the footsteps of his father and grandfather in graduating from UCLA. After receiving a BA, MA and LLB, he went into the real estate business in West Los Angeles under the name O’Brien Realty.

However, oil was always in his veins and in 1962 he founded Republic Oil & Gas located in Central and South America. Consequently, he had over two million hectaries under his control in separate countries both on and offshore. In 1973, he finally returned to Texas residing in Midland and using his company Santa Fe Petroleum discovered and named the Tripple-C field in Sterling County, Texas.

He left Midland to once again pursue the real estate business, this time in Scottsdale, Arizona, but upon his death of his uncle Myron Anderson in 1989, he returned to Midland to be with his beloved Aunt Mildred (Wee) Anderson. In Midland he founded Joss Inc., Joss I-IV, Butte Transmission and Wee Oil Company. He inherited from his father Colonial Production Company of which he was an officer and Director.

It was during this period when he reconnected with the love of his life, his high school sweetheart, Mary Christian Grant.
After a ten year courtship, they were married in June of 2003 at the Mauna Kea Hotel on the Big Island of Hawaii and have lived in Midland ever since.

Thomas was a member, former officer and director, of Rancheros Vistadores in California. He became a member in 1965 and it was here that he became close friends with former President Ronald Reagan, George Hearst; Ambassador William Wilson, the first ambassador to the Vatican; Ambassador Glen Holden, former Ambassador to Jamaica and President of the International Polo Association; Judge William Clark, Head of the Department of Interior and Director of National Security under President Reagan.

He was also a member of TIPRO, CIPPA, Midland Petroleum Club, and The Argyle in San Antonio, Texas. He was a former member of the Bel Air Country Club and Riviera Country Club, both in California; the Vancouver Mounties, Verde Vaqueros in Arizona, Tres Vidas in La Playa in Acapulco and many more organizations.

Thomas was a very giving man and as such, he would prefer that donations be given to a charity of your choice or one of the following he supported.

A memorial service will be held at 10:00am, Friday, August 20, 2021 at Nalley-Pickle & Welch Funeral Home Chapel.

Arrangements are under the direction of Nalley-Pickle & Welch Funeral Home & Crematory of Midland. Online condolences can be made at www.npwelch.com.