In photo above, left to right: Bishop Rey Bersabal, Bishop Jaime Soto, Kevin and Susan O'Brien and Bishop Emeritus William K. Weigand.
At a luncheon April 7 at the Diocesan Pastoral Center in Sacramento, Kevin O'Brien was honored by bishops, work colleagues, friends and family in celebrating his retirement after 45 years of service to the diocese in various ministries.
He began working for the diocese on Jan. 1, 1980, and completed 45 years of service on Jan. 1, 2025.
Born and raised in a Catholic family in London, Kevin moved to Sacramento, where his sister was already living, in 1978. Two years prior to working for the diocese he was one of two full-time, paid youth ministers in the diocese, after having completed the first Emmaus Youth Ministry Training Program at St. Mary's College in Moraga and was hired at St. Philomene Parish in Sacramento in 1978.
He then went to work for the Catholic Youth Organization office in the Cathedral basement under the charge of Msgr. Murrough Wallace and Salvadorian Father Michael Newman. He was also the head counselor for Camp Pendola for two summers and was also engaged in running many youth retreats at the camp.
He also worked with a team of volunteers and other staff of the CYO office and travelled to nearly every deanery in the diocese over several years, reaching out to hundreds of high school students with rerreat days and ministry outreach programs, and the annual youth convention.
Kevin started a youth ministry program for teens called "Wavelength" and built an audio production studio. "We produced radio sports, and a 30-minute weekly show called 'Face the Music,'" he recalls. He also produced a 30-minute show in Spanish for the diocese's El Heraldo newspaper. He said that at its peak, Face the Music aired on 35 stations nationally.
The studio he built later was integrated (with his design help) to the Diocesan Pastoral Center building's architecture design, and became the production center for "The Bishop's Radio Hour" and other media work.
In the mid-1980s, he was responsible for establishing the first young adult gatherings in the diocese. "This led to the first full-time position being designated for young adult ministry in the diocese and resulted in that ministry expanding," Kevin notes.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, Kevin led further retreats and workshops for Christian leadership, media literacy, and youth for peace. "I led teens through justice and peace actions for the homeless, against arms manufacturing, and to feed the hungry at Loaves & Fishes," he notes. "I assisted many youth ministers and parishes to integrate social justice programs as an element of their youth ministry programs."
In the mid-1990s, as typewriters began to be replaced by networked computers, Kevin began managing a small, three-node network for the CYO office, then located on 26th and K Streets. He then had the opportunity to take over and manager a similar network for the diocese's finance department and gradually other diocesan offices.
As the Diocesan Pastoral Center was planned and built in the early 1990s, Kevin asked Msgr. Robert Walton, then vicar general, if he could assist with the network design and management of that network as a full-time systems administrator in what was a growing industry.
"In the years since, I have successfully grown the network architecture to a modern, virtualized computing environment providing services to multiple divisions of the diocese," Kevin notes. Among his many accomplishments, including building the first diocesan website, he has assisted the diocese to move forward with the changing network technologies to benefit the work of diocesan employees, departments and Catholic Funeral and Cemetery Services.
Kevin and his wife, Susan, have been married nearly 24 years, and are the proud parents of Aidan, Callan and Anna.
He likes to point out that "I'm an O'Brien and am Irish, even though I was born and raised in London. My mom was from Dublin and my dad was from Limerick," he says. "I've always had a strong connection with the Irish priests in our diocese who helped and guided me along the way. Father Kieran McMahon presided at my wedding in St. Joseph Church in Clarksburg.
"And I've also been close to the Sisters of Mercy," he added. "When I first came to the diocese, I was painting houses and I painted the convent at St. Robert Parish in Sacramento, and one of the first sisters I met was Sister Kathleen Horgan, before I even started working with the diocese."