(27 Dec. 1911-16 June 1999), clergyman. (M. J. O’Brien, Michael J. O’Brien, Mgr O’Brien) Born at Glen Walter, GC. Parents: William J. O’Brien and his wife Flora Bergeron. He was ordained to the priesthood at St. Finnan’s Cathedral, 8 June 1939, and died in 1999, shortly after the 60th anniversary of his ordination. In the intervening years, he served in some ten parishes of the diocese, beginning in 1939 at Curry Hill, which at that time was served from St. Joseph’s, Lancaster. He was parish priest at St. Bernard’s, Finch, from 1945 to 1955, being the founding priest of the parish, where the people up till this time had been served from Holy Rosary Church, Crysler, and he was again priest of St. Bernard’s from 1982 till his death at the age of 87. At the time of the demolition and flooding made necessary by the building of the St. Lawrence Seaway, he was involved, as parish priest at Dickinson’s Landing, in the difficult processes by which three Roman Catholic churches in the area were replaced with two new churches, at Ingleside and Long Sault. From 1961 to 1975, he was parish priest at St. Raphael’s, being the thirteenth pastor of the parish, and was the priest when the great stone church was destroyed by fire in 1970. Afterwards, he oversaw the building of the new church there and the beginning of the work of preserving the stone ruins of the old church. In 1990, he was named a prelate of honour. He died at Winchester Memorial Hospital.

Glengarry News 23 June & 21 July 1999 * ordination, 60th anniversary, GN 9 June 1939, 16 June 1999 (biog. data, portrait) * Villeneuve 161-162, 231-236, 252