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IN MEMORIAM: Al O’Brien, 84;

Proprietor Of Cooperstown Motel

Al O'Brien
Al O’Brien

COOPERSTOWN  –  Albert K. O’Brien, 84, proprietor of the Cooperstown Motel, died Oct. 23, 2015, after a long battle with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable adult inherited infirmity.

He was born Feb. 12, 1931, in the Methodist-Episcopal Hospital in New York City.  He was raised in Springfield Center in the family’s four generation home as well as in several different sections of New York City.

While attending high school as a freshman in New York City, he entered an art contest with all the public high schools in the five boroughs and won a tuition free art class at the Museum of Modern Art.  At MOMA, he studied every Saturday for a year with Victor DiMico and met many current well-known artists.  During his MOMA classes, he was also offered a scholarship at Pratt Art Institute but his father became seriously ill and there was no available funding for required housing, food, and transportation.

Albert, his mother and ailing father returned to Cooperstown and he then attended Cooperstown Central School.  Albert was an avid outdoorsman.  He went camping, hunting and fishing at every opportunity. He was active in Boy Scouts and, with Dave Hensle’s help, they reformed Cooperstown Troop 54 and he actively participated in the Troop’s many winter and summer weekend camping trips. He graduated CCS in 1949, attended, and graduated college in Utica.

After college he again returned to Cooperstown and leased the Cooperstown Esso Station (now Taylor’s) and helped his mother and step-father build the Cooperstown Motel on Chestnut and Beaver Streets.

Albert then attended Oneonta State Teachers College, where he earned two more college degrees and dual state Teaching Certifications in English and elementary academic branch subjects. While student teaching at CCS, Principal Nick Sterling offered Albert a full-time teaching position.

Because of his dual teaching certification, Albert was hired by Bassett Hospital’s Dr. Mary Goodwin with state funding to become the first bed-side tutor for hospitalized children unable to attend regular classes.  He also home-tutored several children after school who could not attend regular day classes.

In 1967, Albert O’Brien purchased the Cooperstown Motel from his parents, who then retired to Florida.  Over the next few decades, he built on and doubled the number of rooms, added a second floor for 13 more rooms, enlarged and paved the parking areas; and made other major improvements in the property.  Because of the daytime operation demands of the Cooperstown Motel, Albert left CCS and began teaching evening division college English in Utica.

He married Mona Munford in 1950. She currently is in an assisted-living facility in Tucson, Ariz..  They have three two sons, Albert N. O’Brien and Edward D. O’Brien, and a daughter, Kathleen Ramirez.  Albert N. O’Brien’s family includes grandchildren and great- grandchildren: (Albert N.) Kristin Brosky (Michael) with two great grandchildren, Dakota and Annika; (Albert N.) Gillian Noonan (Wesley) and great grandchild, Ivy; (Albert N.) Carolyn O’Brien and great granddaughter, Avalyn Walters; (Albert N.) Albert J. O’Brien and grandson, Hazel; (Albert N.) and  granddaughter, Maeve O’Brien.  Edward D. O’Brien’s family includes grandchildren, Kyle O’Brien and Eddie O’Brien.  Kathleen Ramirez’s family includes grandchildren, Daniel J. Llewellyn and Jacobo X. Ramirez

He was predeceased by his father, Albert F. O’Brien and mother, Dorothy E. O’Brien (Nee: Nelson) and step-father, Edward V. Clark; and a daughter.

At his request, there will be no funeral services.  He will be buried in Springfield Center Cemetery with his family.

Arrangements are under the guidance of Tillapaugh Funeral Service, Cooperstown.

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