Conan O’Brien’s family is facing an unimaginable loss.
The former late night host’s mother Ruth O’Brien died Dec. 12 at age 92, three days after his father Dr. Thomas O’Brien passed away at age 95.
Both of Conan’s parents were trailblazers in their fields, with Ruth being only one of four women in her Yale Law School class of 1956, according to her obituary. When she became a real estate attorney, she was the second woman to be a partner at her law firm in 1978. She retired in 1996 after 25 years.
Meanwhile, Thomas—who also shared kids Neal, Jane, Justin, Kate and Luke with his wife of 66 years—was a physician, epidemiologist and professor at Harvard Medical School for three decades, per the Boston Globe. During his career, Thomas worked diligently to address the threats of drug-resistant strains of microbes by pioneering the use of databases to allow doctors to respond quickly to outbreaks.
Although Thomas was a renowned expert in his field, Conan—who shares kids Neve, 21, and Beckett, 19, with wife Liza Powel O’Brien—also reflected on his dad beyond his career.
