Dr. Divinity

From the sixth-floor balcony outside the Vatican City office of Jon O'Brien '46, the dome of St. Peter's Basilica shimmers in the sweltering. midsummer heat. O'Brien; Staff Psychiatrist at the North American College seminary in Rome, has just given me a guided tour of the massive cathedral. As; we climbed the steep hill Leading up to the college, he exhibited a spring in 1 his step (justayear after bypass surgery) and a wry sense of humor. "One of my prayers each day is that the elevators keep working," he said with a wink.

With an A.B.J.D . S.J.S.T.D., D.O., and two honorary' doctorates Atter his name, O'Brien has more degrees than a thermometer. After enlisting as a naval officer, graduating from Dartmouth and Yale Law School and practicing law in New York, O'Brien joined the Jesuit order in 1953. for 15 years he served in the priesthood before beginning a teaching stint at St. Joseph's College in Philadelphia. Medicine was O'Brien's next calling, and he studied at Philadelphia's College of Osteopathic Medicine before moving on to a residency in psychiatry and a teaching and administrative career at Georgetown. He has served in his current assignment since 1994, acting as a psychological and spiritual counselor to students at the seminary.

"Jon's background made him ideal for his job in Rome," says lifelong friend Dick Fitzgerald '46. "He's basically a shy person, but he has a great love for people and is a tremendous writer." O'Brien's gift of mixing humorous and spiritual messages is evident in the homilies written for recent class reunions. In 1991, referring to departed classmates, O'Brien called heaven "The Great Dartmouth Club in the Sky...the ultimate Homecoming."

O'Brien practices pope psychiatry.