Omaha Press Club celebrates UNMC’s O’Connor

On Feb. 5, UNMC’s Tom O’Connor became the Omaha Press Club’s 148th “Face on the Barroom Floor.”

A club-record sellout crowd for the dinner and roast reflected the friends and associations O’Connor has made in his 28-year public relations career at UNMC, where he is senior associate director of communications. And it saluted O’Connor’s 38-year OPC membership, including his 15th year leading the Face Committee. He was OPC president in 2001.

As chairman of the Face Committee, O’Connor has been responsible for the past 62 Faces on the Barroom Floor, including James Armitage, M.D., oncology-hematology (Face No. 86, 2002) and Chancellor Emeritus Harold M. Maurer, M.D., and his wife, Beverly, (Face No. 111, 2007).

World-Herald columnist Mike Kelly emceed the roast.

Some of the sharper darts from the roasters:

John Murphy, president of J. Murphy & Associates: “Tom plays a lot of golf – Monday at Johnny Goodman, Thursday at Elmwood, Saturday at Miracle Hill and tries to get in another round on Sunday. If only all of us could work for the government.”

Bill O’Neill, director of public relations for UNMC: “It killed Tom when our internal newsletter limited its stories to 400 words. He complained: ‘I can’t tell a story without eight or nine fabricated quotes!'”

Rick Ruggles, health reporter for the World-Herald, said O’Connor’s scathing food critique after a university trip to China touched off an international incident. Ruggles said then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had to mend fences with the Chinese, telling them: “Don’t let it bother you. That’s just Tom O’Connor, a schmuck from Nebraska.”

Jim Cavanaugh, Douglas County commissioner and O’Connor’s roommate at Creighton University: “I helped Tom and (future wife) Karen hook up. I’d like to take this occasion to publicly apologize to Karen. I beg your forgiveness.”

Capping the evening’s festivities were proclamations from Mayor Jean Stothert declaring Feb. 5 “Tom O’Connor Day” and from Gov. Pete Ricketts commissioning O’Connor an admiral in the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska.

In addition, Steve Hinrichs, M.D., chairman of pathology and microbiology at the Medical Center, used football terminology to present O’Connor a first and only “Lineman of the Decade” Award for Tom’s line-editing and other assistance with news releases about the medical center’s biocontainment unit and other public health issues.

What did the newest “Face” have to say about all of this?

“Amazing as it may sound, PR people don’t like to be the center of attention. We like to blow the horn for other people, not ourselves. I have to say this has been the most uncomfortable thing I’ve ever done,” O’Connor said before thanking his roasters and guests.