Robert Lincoln O'Brien was an American journalist and editor of the Boston Herald.
Background
Robert Lincoln O'Brien was born on September 14, 1865, in Abington, Massachussets, United States, the son of Patrick O'Brien, an immigrant from Ireland, and Lydia Howard Dunham. His early life was hard, for the family was large and his father, a cobbler, died when O'Brien was fourteen.
Education
After his father's death, young Robert O'Brien had to leave the Abington public schools in order to work in his brother William's heel-manufacturing business. Then, he entered Bridgewater State Normal School in 1882; and was enrolled at Dartmouth for a year. He spent two years in the Lawrence Scientific School and his senior year in Harvard College, graduating with a B. A. in 1891.
Career
Immediately following graduation in 1891, O'Brien began to work as a reporter for the Boston Evening Transcript. In June 1892, the newly nominated Democratic presidential candidate, Grover Cleveland, was seeking a personal stenographer. At the suggestion of John B. Smith of the Boston Herald, Cleveland appointed O'Brien to the position. After Cleveland's election, O'Brien officially became the executive clerk of the White House, while unofficially he was almost a son to Cleveland. Even after their official relationship ended in 1895, they felt affection and respect for each other.
In 1895, O'Brien became Washington correspondent for the Transcript, quickly establishing a reputation for analysis and knowledge of the capital beat.
O'Brien became a Republican in 1896. He expressed his conventional views on numerous occasions in editorials for Youth's Companion and in articles printed in Century, Atlantic, Munsey's, and Outlook. For Ladies' Home Journal he ran a column called "What the President Thinks" during Theodore Roosevelt's presidency.
O'Brien returned to Boston in 1906 as editor of the Transcript. He served in that post until 1910, when he became editor of the newly reorganized Boston Herald and president of the Boston Publishing Company. Under his direction the negotiations that produced the consolidation of the Herald and the Traveler were completed in 1912. O'Brien continued to serve as editor of the Herald and president of the combined companies until his retirement from active journalism in 1928. The Herald became a major American newspaper, in large part because he insisted upon high-quality writing and reporting. Others early recognized O'Brien's commitment to the finest standards of journalism, and for many years he served on the advisory board of the Pulitzer School of Journalism at Columbia University, the award body for the Pulitzer prizes in journalism.
O'Brien traveled extensively, beginning in 1903 with an around-the-world trip. Although he had not formally studied economics, he became knowledgeable in international economic theory. He was, therefore, prepared after his retirement to take on the challenge of heading the United States Tariff Commission, a post that President Herbert Hoover offered him in 1931.
O'Brien's appointment was intended as a sinecure for a loyal and active Republican, but he was not satisfied with a sinecure. Assailed initially by Democrats and Progressives, he earned respect as a thoughtful and open-minded expert on tariff policy. His views fit well with Secretary of State Cordell Hull's thinking on tariffs, so O'Brien became a valued, if largely unknown, part of the New Deal. He strongly endorsed Hull's reciprocal tariff program, using his credentials as a good Republican businessman to convince other Republicans to accept that program.
He was reappointed by President Roosevelt in 1936 to another six-year term but retired on July 1, 1937.
O'Brien was a member of the Republican party since 1896.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
Clifford K. Shipton, a longtime friend and associate in the American Antiquarian Society, described O'Brien best: "Mr. O'Brien gave an impression of greatness which goes beyond the record of his career. He was no crusader. Although a lifelong Unitarian, he was comfortably orthodox on social and political questions. Perhaps the answer is that he was a great newspaperman, correctly interpreting the public mind instead of trying to change it"
Connections
On February 19, 1895, O'Brien married Emily Ayers Young of Lisbon, New Hampshire, a graduate of Boston University and its medical school; they had three children. She died in 1945, and in 1950 he married Helen Victoria Brown, a teacher.