O’Hara family continues to leave indelible mark on WO

WEST ORANGE, NJ — Many families have become synonymous with West Orange, with generations of relatives living and working in the community they love. Yet few can say they have made as much of an impact on the township as the O’Haras.

It was Frank O’Hara who helped launch the West Orange St. Patrick’s Day Parade in 1951, thus starting what is now arguably the most anticipated event on the local calendar. And through his namesake organization — the Frank O’Hara Association — the family is still making a difference by fundraising for local causes in addition to continuing to have a big role in planning the parade every year.

For President Patrick O’Hara Jr., the association is more than a way to maintain his grandfather’s legacy though. As he told the West Orange Chronicle, his family’s work has inspired him to be a charitable person at a time when many people are too busy to care about giving back.

“People might even mistake my kindness for weakness when that is not the case,” Patrick O’Hara Jr. said in an April 21 phone interview. “Sometimes by giving it is receiving. And that’s something that I think has been instilled (in me) and that I can really take away.”

The association has certainly helped many people through the years, contributing money to such causes as the Shillelagh Club and Project Children. Despite its age — the organization was founded in 1933, making it one of the oldest Irish-American groups in the country — the Frank O’Hara Association is still going strong. The president said it is in the early stages of resurrecting its Shamrock Run, a popular fundraiser it held from the late 1970s until the late 1980s. The organization is also filing for nonprofit status.

Of course, the clearest evidence of the association’s efforts can be seen in the success of the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade. Though it has been decades since Frank O’Hara helped start the event, his organization has played a key role in selecting the event’s grand marshal and deputy marshals for years. Many have held positions on the parade committee, as well. In fact, West Orange First Lady Sheila Parisi — who usually serves as the committee chairwoman — is an O’Hara family member, being the daughter of the recently deceased Mary O’Hara Roth and granddaughter of Frank O’Hara.

While the parade is a significant event for the town, it is just as meaningful to the O’Haras. Joe O’Hara, one of Frank O’Hara’s nine children and a former parade treasurer himself, said every year relatives from across the country return to West Orange just to participate in the tradition. Afterward, he said family and old friends gather for a party in the basement of Our Lady of Lourdes Church to catch up on old times. It is always a wonderful gathering, he said.

What is also nice for him to see is that the more things change, the more they stay the same when it comes to the parade. Joe O’Hara said the demographics of West Orange have changed since he was a youth, making for a far more diverse crowd watching the parade than when the township was dominated by Irish, Italian, German and Polish residents. Yet one can still sense the same community spirit exuded by the spectators as could be found at parades from years ago, he said.

Plus, the former parade treasurer said it is a pleasure seeing that the O’Hara family remains connected to the tradition it helped initiate.

“It was my father’s generation that started it, then our generation took over, then the next generation took over and now the younger generation is getting involved with it,” Joe O’Hara told the West Orange Chronicle in an April 21 phone interview. “It goes on from generation to generation. It’s a common bond.”

The fact that the O’Haras reunite in West Orange annually is fitting, considering the family’s attachment to the community. Joe O’Hara said he has fond memories of growing up in town surrounded by siblings and cousins and their many friends in a town where everyone knew each other. All the children spent their free time playing Little League in Colgate Park or street games in the dead-end by Allen Street and James Court. They were basically given free rein to do what they wanted, as long as they went home after the Edison factory’s 5 p.m. whistle blew.

His nephew Sean O’Hara had a similar experience growing up in West Orange despite being a generation apart. Though he never lived in town, Sean O’Hara said he would spend every weekend and holiday of his childhood visiting his grandparents and cousins. And he had a lot of fun doing so, often playing in the Our Lady of Lourdes Parking Lot and hanging out with the numerous Wannemacher siblings. It was really an “idyllic” time of his life, he said.

It was also a very influential one. Sean O’Hara said he learned a lot about hard work from the example of his grandfather, who went from polishing doorknobs at the Prudential Insurance Company and working on what is now the PATH service to opening successful taverns in West Orange and his first American home of Newark after migrating from Ireland in the 1920s. He said his grandmother was also a role model, as he would often watch her work tirelessly in a West Orange dry cleaning shop.

“We always saw firsthand the value and the benefit of a solid work ethic,” Sean O’Hara told the Chronicle in an April 13 phone interview. “If I took anything out of West Orange, that was probably it.”

Following their lead, Sean O’Hara worked hard to find success for himself in the financial world. He is currently president of Pacer ETF Distributors, an exchange-traded funds distributor that has accumulated almost $900 million in assets in less than two years. He is also a regular contributor to such financial media stations as CNBC and Fox Business, where he has given his take on everything from stock market trends to President Donald Trump’s position on trade.

But Sean O’Hara was not the only one to pick up life lessons from the family. Patrick O’Hara Jr. said he learned a lot about never doing anything halfway and to also remain humble. He said he was also taught to carry the family name with pride every day because what happened in the past does not make one special.

“An old baseball coach once told me ‘Yesterday’s hits don’t win today’s games,’” Patrick O’Hara Jr. said. “You can’t lie on the laurels of yesterday. You have to continue (doing your best) today.”

Many members of the O’Hara family have indeed brought honor to the family name — at both the West Orange level and the national level. Tom O’Hara, another of Frank O’Hara’s nine children, has become acquainted with everyone from former President Barack Obama to former House Speaker Tip O’Neill as a lobbyist for Prudential. And Rich Kenah, one of 44 O’Hara first cousins, is the executive director of the Atlanta Track Club after running for the 2000 U.S. Olympic track and field team.

Yet for all their accomplishments, Patrick O’Hara Jr. said, no one has a big head when the family gets together. That is because everyone knows where they come from, he said. In fact, he said, Kenah is even helping the association with its relaunch of the Shamrock Run, which could include taking the event on tour or branding it out as a way of promoting Irish culture.

That is not surprising to Joe O’Hara, who said the importance of family was instilled in him and his siblings while growing up in West Orange. It is still important to the entire clan today, as demonstrated by their continued closeness.

“Everybody helps one another,” Joe O’Hara said. “Everybody keeps track of everybody, you know where everybody is. It kind of holds everybody together.”

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Sean Quinn

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