Conan O'Brien Shares Moving Tribute to His Parents After Their Deaths

Conan O’Brien’s Parents Die Within Three Days of Each Other

Conan O'Brien is sharing heartwarming childhood memories of his parents after their recent deaths.

The comedian's dad, Dr. Thomas F. O’Brien, passed away Dec. 9 at age 95. Three days later, his mom, lawyer Ruth Reardon O’Brien, died at age 92.

"I think what my mother and father saw in each other was that they were kindred spirits," Conan told the Boston Globe in an interview published Dec. 17. “They were incredibly hard-working and disciplined."

The 61-year-old's parents raised him and his five siblings—Neal, 64, Luke, 62, Kate, 60, Jane, 57 and Justin, 52—in Brookline, Mass. Their father, a physician, epidemiologist and Harvard professor, cofounded the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Centre for Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance and traveled the world to help train and consult with peers internationally on the topic.

"My dad was the dreamer," Conan said. "My dad was the one who was saying, 'I’m off to Peru with a change of clothes in my briefcase to try and launch this website for a hospital there high in the mountains.'"

"My mom was the one who really saw to it when we were little kids that we were fed and our clothes were laid out, and that we got to our dental appointments and medical appointments," the 61-year-old said. "She’s doing all this mom stuff, and when that was done, rushing into a phone booth and becoming Ruth O’Brien, second woman partner at Ropes & Gray."

Conan praised his parents' compassion.

"If anyone was unhappy around my mom in a 50-mile radius, she thought it was incumbent on her to fix the problem," he said. "It did not make her life easy, but it was very much a part of her Catholic drive — that 'I have to be of service to people.' And good God, she was."

As for Thomas, he "thought it was important to hear people’s stories," Conan said, adding, "He cared deeply about people who were very different from him, and from completely different backgrounds. That’s the real beauty of his legacy."