VALDOSTA — A little more than a month after Valdosta-Lowndes County wished him well on his new parish near Augusta, the community learned the news Friday morning that former St. John Catholic Church pastor Father John O’Brien died Thursday night in a car crash.

St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church made the first local announcement of O’Brien’s death during the Friday morning mass. Church staff met with morning callers and visitors concerning O’Brien throughout the day.

A memorial mass for the man many knew as “Father John” is scheduled for Monday evening at St. John, a vigil service will be held for O’Brien at the Augusta-area parish Tuesday, and his funeral mass will be held Wednesday in Savannah.

Bishop J. Kevin Boland is expected to cut short his trip to Ireland to preside over O’Brien’s funeral, said Barbara D. King, the Diocese of Savannah’s communications director.

“This is a devastating loss to the Diocese of Savannah and to Father O’Brien’s family,” Boland wrote in an e-mailed statement from Ireland. “Father O’Brien was a priest of the people and a priests’ priest. For 38 years, he has given outstanding and exemplary service to our diocese.”

O’Brien, 61, was pronounced dead following a two-car collision at approximately 10 p.m. Thursday at the Medical College of Georgia Hospital, according to a statement from Columbia County Coroner Vernon Collins in The Augusta Chronicle.

The Chronicle reports that the wreck occurred at about 9:20 p.m. Thursday, when O’Brien left an Evans, Ga., Japanese restaurant in response to an alarm at the church.

“On his return to the restaurant, (O’Brien) missed the entrance to the restaurant and turned into Ace Hardware,” according to The Chronicle’s account of a Columbia County Sheriff’s Department report. “O’Brien’s Buick Lucerne was struck when he made a left turn from the store parking lot into the path of a Ford F-150 pickup truck driven by Gregory Earle, 44, of Evans.”

O’Brien was taken to Augusta’s Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab for an autopsy, according to The Chronicle.

O’Brien had moved to the Augusta region little more than a month ago when he was re-assigned after nearly 13 years with Valdosta’s St. John to serve as senior pastor of St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church, Grovetown.

In an e-mail received earlier this week by a staff member of The Valdosta Daily Times, O’Brien wrote, “Things are going well in Augusta. It is a new church. It is a new congregation, so you can imagine the challenges are many.”

O’Brien’s life seemed custom-made for challenges.

A native of Ireland, he grew up in Youghal (pronounced “yall,” of which he would joke that he came from a place called Youghal to live in South Georgia where everyone said, “y’all”).

As a youngster, O’Brien had no plans for the priesthood.

He felt a calling at the age of 16 when the Savannah, Ga., bishop visited O’Brien’s high school. The bishop told the gathered students that he wished to see a day when there was a priest in each county of Georgia.

“I couldn’t imagine it,” O’Brien told The Valdosta Daily Times in June, “a county without a priest. I grew up with 30, 40, 50 priests per county.”

From that day forward, he was on the road to becoming a priest serving Georgia.

Starting in 1969, O’Brien was assigned to the Savannah diocese, serving briefly in Savannah then Columbus,

Albany, Valdosta (as associate pastor from August 1976 to June 1978), to Augusta and then back to Valdosta in August 1994.

During his time at St. John’s, the parish’s membership rose from approximately 600-700 to about 900 families.

O’Brien supervised major construction projects while at St. John’s. For nearly 18 months, construction left St. John’s without its regular home for mass, but the parish was not left without places to worship. Numerous Protestant churches opened their doors to Father John and the Catholic congregation throughout Valdosta.

“It was unbelievable,” O’Brien said in June, noting the hospitality and kindness shown the parish during its time of need. “One of the great things about being in Valdosta is the great relationship among churches here. There is a great rapport among pastors.”

While O’Brien pastored his congregation, he became a familiar and welcome face throughout South Georgia.

Martha Gibson, former head of ArtSouth, recalled Friday how O’Brien welcomed the Valdosta State University Theatre to use St. John’s parish hall for its annual Cabaret scholarship fund-raiser. “He was the wittiest person,” she said, recalling how at the first Cabaret, she asked O’Brien if he would give an opening blessing, he deadpanned, “Of course, though I do have a fee.”

As America’s Second Harvest Food Bank prepared for its Empty Bowls event Friday, organizers noted how O’Brien readily agreed to be a part of its “I am hunger” commercials which are still airing on local channels.

Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk was asked to recall how, a few years ago, O’Brien came to the aid of an elderly, out-of-town woman whose husband passed while they were in Valdosta. The elderly couple were staying at a Valdosta hotel when the husband died. The woman’s sons were out of the country and she was stuck in Valdosta for a few days. Paulk opened his home to the woman, who said she was Catholic. A call later, Father John was at the sheriff’s house consoling the grieving woman, and O’Brien called upon her often during her stay.

It was his ability to connect with congregations and communities coupled with his experience of building a church that led to his reassignment to the Augusta area in late June.

Before leaving, O’Brien said he believed he had another decade in him to serve as a full-time pastor. That plan came to an end Thursday night, which underscored something else O’Brien said, use the time you have and use it well.



• MEMORIAL SERVICES FOR FATHER JOHN O’BRIEN

MONDAY

7 p.m.: Memorial Mass, St. John the Evangelist, 800 Gornto Road.

TUESDAY

6 p.m.: Vigil Service, St. Teresa of Avila, Grovetown.

WEDNESDAY

10 a.m.-noon: O’Brien will lie in state, Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, 222 E. Harris St., Savannah.

Noon: Funeral Mass.

Burial will follow at the Catholic Cemetery, 1720 Wheaton St., Savannah.

More information: Visit the St. John Web site (www.johnevang.org).