Page 8 • New Horizons • September 2019--Please turn to page 9.

Tom became the 148th Face on the Barroom Floor at the

Omaha Press Club in 2016.

With blueprints in hand, O’Connor visits the construction site of UNMC’s new ‘front door’ at 42nd and Leavenworth streets.By Nick SchinkerContributing Writer

Few people know the University of Ne-braska Medical Center as well as Tom O’Connor.

On a campus filled with medical experts, O’Connor is a specialist at getting their stories of care, research, and discovery told accurately and completely. His field is public relations, and he has been the eyes, ears, and voice of “the Med Center” for more than three decades. He knows what makes a great news story, which UNMC doctor, administrator, or researcher should tell it, and which media outlets would do the best job presenting it to the world. And, he has the drive and dedication to follow each story through until the video is aired and the ink is dry.

Harold Maurer, M.D. is professor of pediatric hematology/oncology at UNMC and served as its chancellor for 15 years. “Tom is a marvelous guy in every way; professionally and personally,” Dr. Maurer says. “He will sit with you during inter-views and make certain everything comes out correctly, then go back and double check every date and figure. He is impeccably honest.”

UNMC Vice Chancellor for External Affairs Robert Bartee echoes Dr. Maurer’s praise. “Tom is a thorough professional,” Bartee says. “He understands the message UNMC wants to share with the public, and he understands the media’s need for meeting deadlines. He is very passionate about UNMC and our mission, and he has been a marvelous ambassador for us.”

The testimonials are hard-earned and well-de-served for O’Connor, who will retire in January from his post as senior associate director of pub-lic relations. Since 1987, he has watched UNMC grow in size and reputation, and has done all he

can to keep the public aware of every new build-ing and medical breakthrough.

“The Med Center is truly Nebraska’s crown jewel,” O’Connor says. “From a public relations standpoint, it’s like I died and went to heaven. The challenge has been trying to figure out which stories to tell. There are so many good ones.”

O’Connor was born in Oskaloosa, Iowa, and moved with his parents and two brothers, Jack and Jim, to West Des

Moines when he was 3 years old. His mother, Dorothy, was a homemaker while his father, Richard, worked for the Burroughs Corp., a manufacturer of revolutionary devices known as adding machines. He would visit banks and the

region and service the Burroughs machines. O’Connor lived in West Des Moines until

the second grade, when the family moved to Sioux City. Six years later, they moved back to Des Moines, where he graduated from Dowling Catholic High School in 1968.

Tom went on to study journalism at Creighton University, and served as sports editor and assis-tant managing editor at the university newspaper, the Creightonian. “I was a sports nut,” he recalls. “My goal was to be a sportswriter.”

Married in October of his graduating year, 1972, to Karen Schneider, O’Connor’s dream of becoming a sportswriter didn’t materialize right away. After graduation, he first took a job in construction, then a night position at Data Docu-ments. That left him free during the day to play basketball with friends on the outdoor courts at Creighton.

One day, Dan Offenburger, the Creighton athletic director, saw O’Connor playing ball and pulled him aside. He told O’Connor that his brother, Chuck Offenburger, had just moved from their hometown of Shenandoah, Iowa to Des Moines to take a job as a columnist at the Des Moines Register. That meant the job of sports editor at the Shenandoah Evening Sentinel was up for grabs.

O’Connor got hired and filled the job for a little over two years. “It was a fabulous experi-ence,” he recalls. “I loved it. It was a fast-moving daily and I got to do everything: take photos, write copy, write headlines.”

But, Omaha beckoned. “Karen was an Omaha girl and not small-town Iowa,” O’Connor says.

In 1974, O’Connor went to work as an ad-vertising copywriter for Mutual of Omaha. “I worked primarily in print advertising, writing

PR ‘specialist’ retiring after 32 years at UNMC

September 2019 • New Horizons • Page 9

Tom during a recent new employee orientation

session at UNMC.

O’Connor and UNMC physician Howard E. Gendelman, M.D.

His retirement will give O’Connor more time to spend with (from left): daughter, Kelly Raynor; wife, Karen; and son, Andy.

(Photos courtesy of UNMC.)

--Continued from page 8.headlines and copy for brochures,” he says. “But I knew I wanted to do public relations more than advertis-ing.”

In 1976, he moved on to become media relations coordinator at Mu-tual, a position he held until 1987 when his department was down-sized. Just before he left Mutual, Tom saw a job description in The Omaha World-Herald for a public relations job at UNMC.

“Karen and I knew nothing about UNMC,” he says. “I never took 42nd Street on my way to Mutual.”

Still he applied for the job. “I met seven people in the interview pro-cess, and the farther I progressed, the more I knew I wanted to work here,” he says. “I was honored they picked me.”

Thirty-two years later, he is still honored.

O’Connor has worked under five chancellors at UNMC: Charles Andrews, M.D.,

Carol Aschenbrener, M.D., William Berndt, Ph.D., Dr. Maurer, and the current chancellor, Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D. The very first, Dr. Andrews, told O’Connor something Tom never forgot.

“He said, ‘We are a state institu-tion. We are an open book. We have no secrets,’” and then Dr. Andrews added, “Just don’t give me any surprises.”

One of the duties O’Connor in-herited was a weekly radio show on KIOS-FM (91.5), which he co-host-ed for 20 years alongside UNMC’s William Gust, M.D.

“We had a different guest every week,” O’Connor says. “It was a lot of work, but it was fascinating.

I could almost get a medical de-gree from what I learned through that show. It was not only a great PR tool; it built my list of contacts across campus.”

Tom has written countless press releases and articles, as well as a column titled, Time Out with T.O. He says he hopes to continue writ-ing columns after he leaves UNMC in January.

O’Connor has witnessed consid-erable progress in his 32 years at UNMC. Building space on campus has more than tripled, going from 2.3 million square feet in 1988 to more than 7.1 million square feet today.

He has watched the development of an academic campus in which all colleges/academic facilities were situated on the east end of campus in close proximity to the Ruth and Bill Scott Student Plaza; and the creation of two research towers on the west end of campus – the Dur-ham Research Center and Durham Research Center II – within steps of the $323 million Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, the largest construction project in the Univer-sity of Nebraska’s history.

“I’ve been fortunate to be here during a golden era for the Med Center. The immense growth here has so much to do with the tremen-dous philanthropy of the Omaha community,” he says. “Ruth and Bill Scott, Chuck Durham, Walter and Suzanne Scott, C.L. Werner, Gail and Mike Yanney, Dr. Stan and Dorothy Truhlsen, Dr. Lee and Dorothy Olson, and so many oth-ers have been incredibly supportive of the Med Center and its mission. They have made these fantastic things possible.”

O’Connor has also built his own reputation in the public relations and media communities. He served as president of the Nebraska Chap-ter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) in 1995 and as president of the Omaha Press Club (OPC) in 2001.

Since 2002, he has served as chairman of the OPC’s Face on the Barroom Floor Committee, which

recognizes prominent Nebraskans for their contributions to society. Over the past 17 years, the Press Club has honored 76 Faces under his direction. In 2016, O’Connor was honored as the 148th Face on the Barroom Floor before a sellout crowd. He also is a member of the OPC Publications Committee and a former member of the OPC Mem-bership and Marketing Committee. Tom is a frequent contributor to the OPC News monthly newsletter.

He is a member of the Publi-cations Advisory Board for the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO), and serves as a PR vol-unteer with the Ancient Order of Hibernians – Father Flanagan Division. O’Connor has previously served on the boards of the Well-ness Council of the Midlands (now called WELLCOM), the Neighbor-hood Center, the American Heart Association, and the American Cancer Society.

Among his many honors and awards, Tom received the UNMC Gold “U” Award in 2005, and the UNMC Silver “U” Award in 2000 and 2012. He was named the PRSA Professional of the Year in 1994, and received the PRSA Special Achievement in Public Relations Award in 2013. He received the Communication Achievement Award in 2009 from the UNO

School of Communication. And yet, O’Connor is as humble

as he is skilled. He credits the UNMC staff and administrators, his Department of Public Relations Director Bill O’Neill, his media re-lations colleagues Vicky Cerino and Lisa Spellman, and the media itself with playing key roles in building public awareness of UNMC.

“Our faculty members have a unique blend of being able to treat the sickest patients, conduct cutting-edge research, and educate the next generation of physicians,” he says. “When you build a cadre of people wearing all three of those hats, you’ve got a very special place.

“We look at the news media as our ally. The media started coming to UNMC because they knew we’d find them a reliable source of infor-mation – and we’d do it within the hour if they needed it.”

The O’Connors have been married for 46 years and have two children – Andy, 45, and

Kelly Raynor, 41 – and five grand-children. Tom’s third-floor office in the 4230 Building along Leav-enworth Street is lined with crayon drawings from those grandkids.

Still a sports nut, he plays “medi-ocre golf,” is an avid fan of several teams, and is a longtime supporter of the Creighton Bluejays men’s basketball team.

“We’ll keep moving,” O’Connor says of his pending retirement. “I won’t be bored.”

Still, for so long, his life has revolved around his work. Pub-lic relations for a major academic medical center is more 24/7 than 9 to 5. “We work until the job gets done,” O’Connor says. “My favorite hour is from 5 to 6 p.m. It’s quiet. The phone stops ringing. I can read my email. It’s peaceful.”

Dr. Maurer says O’Connor’s strong work ethic is just one rea-son he will be missed. “He knows everybody. He knows everything about this place,” Dr. Maurer says. “He knows the media, and they not only trust him, they respect him.

“Qualities like that can’t sim-ply be replaced. They have to be earned.”

Former UNMC chancellor: Media trusts, respects O’Connor