National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien recalled by former Cardinal Newman classmates, friends

When Robert O'Brien, President Trump's new national security adviser, was on the debate team at Santa Rosa's private Cardinal Newman High School 35 years ago he was a tough kid to beat.

“Rob really stood out,” the Catholic school's former debate coach, John Giertz, said Wednesday.

Giertz, now a communication professor at Bakersfield College in Kern County, perceived in the 1980s that the teenage O'Brien was “very sharp” and came naturally by a power to form and defend a position and to expose weaknesses in an opponent's arguments.

Then there was this: Giertz said that what truly distinguished young Rob O'Brien was “his confidence, and his ability to reach out and talk to people.

“He wasn't afraid to engage with anyone,” the career attorney and diplomat's former debate coach said.

Others who were close to O'Brien as he grew up in Sonoma County say they, too, applaud Trump's selection of the former presidential envoy for hostage affairs, United Nations General Assembly representative and adviser to Republican presidents and presidential candidates to replace the abruptly departed John Bolton.

Santa Rosa attorney and former Democratic lawmaker Doug Bosco recalled that when he ran against longtime Republican congressman Don Clausen in 1982, he stood opposed by a group of teens calling themselves Young Republicans for Clausen.

Among the politically driven teens were Rob O'Brien; his brother, Pat, who'd also become a lawyer; future attorney and St. Francis Winery president Chris Silva; and future judge Mike Brown.

“They were the kind of bright-eyed kids that no politician wants to have running against them,” said Bosco, now a partner in Sonoma Media Investments, which owns The Press Democrat.

After Bosco unseated Clausen, the congressman and O'Brien became friends, and remain so. Bosco describes his former teen adversary as smart, articulate, moderate, “a straight shooter,” measured in his approach and someone unlikely to act precipitously.

“I think he's the best appointment Trump has made so far.”

At the same time, said Bosco, “I'm a little worried for him.

“There's a lot of envy and backbiting that goes on in the White House,” he said. “He'll have to rise above all that - as well as get along with the president.

“I feel a lot safer with him as national security adviser than Bolton,” Bosco concluded.

Healdsburg Republican John Jordan, the Jordan Winery executive, philanthropist and Fox News commentator, expected Trump to choose State Department official Brian Hook as his national security adviser.

Reflecting on O'Brien's appointment, he said, “I think what's important is that the president has a national security adviser who doesn't have his own agenda. … It's important that the president has a national security adviser that's happy to work under the radar.”

Efforts to reach O'Brien, who was traveling with Trump on Wednesday, were unsuccessful.

As a member of the Cardinal Newman High Class of 1984, Robert O'Brien played tennis, shone on the debate team and made clear his Republican views.

Classmate and fellow Republican club alum Scott Palmer said from Los Angeles on Wednesday that O'Brien showed himself to be a critical thinker - “and an independent thinker as well.”

“Rob's his own man, no doubt,” said Palmer, an attorney who served briefly in O'Brien's Los Angeles law firm.

He remembered that his friend always held a job in high school and spent some time employed in the former Miller's Outpost at Coddingtown.

Palmer said nearly 40 years of friendship convince him that O'Brien is level-headed, well prepared and extremely able. “Especially at this time,” Palmer added, he's comforted to know that when critical national-security and defense issues are discussed at the White House, O'Brien “will be in the room.”

After he graduated from Cardinal Newman, O'Brien earned his law degree from UC Berkeley's Boalt School of Law. Having grown up a Roman Catholic, Robert O'Brien became a Mormon in his 20s.

Settling in Southern California, he and his wife, Lo-Mari, had two daughters and a son. Tragedy struck the family when 18-year-old Robert Christopher O'Brien died after he slipped, struck his head and fell into his family's swimming pool in La Cañada in September 2015.

As the senior Robert O'Brien begins work as Donald Trump's fourth national security adviser, he has former Cardinal Newman schoolmates, teachers and administrators rooting for him.

Mike Truesdell, who served as the school's president and now leads Holy Cross High School in Flushing, New York, last saw him when he returned to Cardinal Newman several years ago as an honored alumnus.

“I remember him remarking how Cardinal Newman helped him to think critically,” Truesdell said from New York. He added that he has to believe that ability will be of great value as O'Brien takes on the global issues that he's inheriting.

At Cardinal Newman on Wednesday, longtime administrator Graham Rutherford said O'Brien's potent intellect was obvious when he was a teenager. But just as impressive, Rutherford said, is that O'Brien has demonstrated “over the years an ability to listen.”

“I think,” Rutherford added, “he will need all of his diplomatic skills for this job.”

Staff Writer Tyler Silvy contributed to this story.

You can reach Staff Writer Chris Smith at 707 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.