Dr. Darcy O’Brien, a longtime faculty member of the TU Department of English and an award-winning author, is memorialized through this endowment fund established by family, friends and colleagues, including The Oxley Foundation and the Lorton family.

O’Brien was known internationally for his many books that included the novel A Way of Life, Like Any Other (1977); and nonfiction titles Two of a Kind: The Hillside Stranglers (1985); A Dark and Bloody Ground (1993); and The Hidden Pope (2001). His work unflinchingly revealed both the best and the worst of human nature and often explored the abuse of power.

The son of Hollywood film stars George O’Brien and actress Marguerite Churchill, Darcy O’Brien chose a career as a scholar and attended Princeton University and the University of Cambridge. He earned his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, and received a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholarship, a Mellon Foundation Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He focused his scholarship on 20th century British, Irish and American Literature. A Pulitzer Prize-nominated author, scholar and critic, O’Brien was a member of the TU English faculty from 1978 until 1996.

O’Brien died in 1998 at the age of 58, and the Darcy O’Brien University Chair Endowment Fund was established in 2001. Since that time, the endowment has supported the Presidential Lecture Series and brings to the TU campus distinguished scholars in English, law, religion, science or other disciplines compatible with the legacy of Darcy O’Brien. The university community is particularly fortunate to have the ongoing support of Darcy’s widow, Suzanne, in setting the roster for this successful series.