A Leader in Academia

By Terry Tush

Pat O’Brien never envisioned the impact he would have on the lives of students the day he walked into the Business Building on the Oklahoma State University campus in 1974 to begin teaching a Money and Banking class as a graduate assistant.

That experience changed his life — more importantly, it changed the lives of thousands of others for more than 40 years as O’Brien taught and served in administrative roles at Bowling Green State University, the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, Auburn University, Jacksonville State University, Loyola University-New Orleans, and West Texas A&M University.

O’Brien is one of three distinguished OSU alumni inducted in November into the Spears School of Business Hall of Fame, the highest honor awarded by the Spears School.

O’Brien recently retired after a 42-year career in education, the last 10 as president of West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas. But he points to his three years in Stillwater as laying the groundwork for his career.

“I would say I gained three things at Oklahoma State: one, a love of economics,” says O’Brien, who graduated from OSU with a Ph.D. in economics (areas of specialization in monetary economics, public finance and regional economics). “Two, I was very fortunate to be asked to teach, and I developed a passion for teaching.

“And three, I would have to say it’s the individuals that I met and I continue to consider to be friends — (former professor) Frank Steindl, (fellow graduate students) Doug McNeal and Don Bumpass. People who became life-long friends and I’ve stayed in contact with them for the past 40-plus years.”

Like many who enter college, it took O’Brien a few years at Auburn University to find his calling. He thought he wanted to be an engineer but switched majors to liberal arts/pre-law in hopes of becoming an attorney. But a macro-economics course fascinated him, and once again changed his mind. He earned both a bachelor’s degree in economics and master’s in agricultural economics from Auburn.

After a few years in the U.S. Army (where he was assigned to a missile battery unit in Germany), O’Brien applied to and was accepted into three graduate schools — Oklahoma State, Ohio State and Texas A&M. He chose Oklahoma State because “the financial assistance they offered was better and when I was doing research on the various institutions one of the individuals that I was impressed with was (economics professor) Dick Leftwich,” O’Brien says.

Leftwich, Steindl, McNeal, Bumpass and others at OSU left a lasting impression on him during his stops as a professor, department head and eventually dean at business colleges across the United States.

He was dean and professor of economics of the College of Business Administration at Loyola University-New Orleans from 1995 to 2006, and may have spent another 10 years there if not for Hurricane Katrina. The Category 3 hurricane made landfall on the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, 2005, forcing the temporary closure of the university. Soon afterward, while living in a FEMA trailer parked outside his mold-infested home, he interviewed to be president at West Texas A&M.

O’Brien was named president of West Texas A&M on Feb. 21, 2006, and served until retiring June 30, 2016.

“It was a great 10 years,” he says. Under his leadership, enrollment grew more than 28 percent from 7,400 to nearly 9,500, capital building projects totaling nearly $200 million were completed, and the College of Business received accreditation by the AACSB International, the highest accrediting body for business colleges in the world.

O’Brien says the highlight of his career was witnessing the success of students, and points to one student’s accomplishments in particular. Two years ago, Cynthia Teniente-Matson was named president of Texas A&M University-San Antonio. A former student of his at Alaska Fairbanks, Tiniente-Matson called O’Brien one of the two most impactful people in her life at her inauguration ceremony.

“That’s when you know you had an impact,” he says. “In department head positions and dean positions, we accomplish a tremendous amount and we achieve lofty goals, but impacting individuals is the highlight of my career.”

He served as chair of the NCAA Division II Presidents Council, was a member of the NCAA Association’s Executive Committee and the NCAA DII Administrative Committee. He also served as chair of the Executive Committee of TIEC (Texas International Education Consortium).

O’Brien is overwhelmed with his induction into the Spears School Hall of Fame.

“When people ask what I want my legacy to be, I simply say I want the organization to be better the day I leave than it was the day I came. That’s all I’m trying to do. I was just flabbergasted when I received the email from Dean [Ken] Eastman.

“I’m tremendously honored. It’s a real highlight. When I saw that former inductees were people like Bob Sandmeyer, a person I respect a tremendous amount, I am just totally honored to be recognized at the same level.”

O’Brien and his wife, Karen, reside in New Orleans, their retirement home. But they don’t plan on settling down.

“Karen and I plan to travel a lot,” says O’Brien, who estimates they have visited more than 75 countries since being stationed in Germany in the late 1960s. “On our bucket list is a river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest, various road trips across the U.S. and multiple cruise destinations. We plan to visit frequently with our sons and grandchildren in Alaska and with my sisters in Tennessee, Minnesota and Washington. We also plan to spruce up our house in New Orleans, garden a lot in the backyard, read all the books I have wanted to read for decades and relax.”