Daniel Pitt O'Brien (August 31, 1900 – November 29, 1957) was

Secretary of State of West Virginia The Secretary of State (U.S. state government), Secretary of State of West Virginia is an elected office within the U.S. state of West Virginia state government. The secretary of state is responsible for overseeing the state's election process, in ...

1948–1957. O'Brien was born at

Buckhannon Buckhannon is the only incorporated city in, and the county seat of, Upshur County, West Virginia, Upshur County, West Virginia, United States, and is located along the Buckhannon River. The population was 5,299 at the 2020 United States Census ...

Upshur County, West Virginia Upshur County is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,816. Its county seat is Buckhannon. The county was formed in 1851 from Randolph, Barbour, and Lewis counties and named for Abel Parker ...

. His father was judge and politician William S. O'Brien and his mother Emma (White) O'Brien. After military service during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he studied at

West Virginia Wesleyan College West Virginia Wesleyan College is a private college in Buckhannon, West Virginia. It has an enrollment of about 1,400 students from 35 U.S. states and 26 countries. The school was founded in 1890 by the West Virginia Conference of the Methodist E ...

and graduated with a

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

He worked as a high school teacher and athletic coach 1925–33 and as Chief

Clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service ...

in the office of the Secretary of State of West Virginia 1933–48, excepting service in the armed forces during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1942, he married Mildred Elizabeth Smith and they had a daughter, Patricia.J. Howard Myers (Ed.
''West Virginia Blue Book'' 1951, Vol. 35
O'Brien sought the Democratic nomination to succeed his father as Secretary of State and won the primary election in May 1948, but his father died August 10, which led to his appointment by Governor Clarence Meadows to fill the unexpired term. On November 2, 1948, he was elected Secretary of State for a full term. He was reelected in 1952 and 1956, but did not complete his last term, since he suffered from sudden death November 29, 1957, just as his father before him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:OBrien, Daniel Pitt Secretaries of State of West Virginia People from Buckhannon, West Virginia West Virginia Wesleyan College alumni American military personnel of World War I American military personnel of World War II Military personnel from West Virginia West Virginia Democrats 1900 births 1957 deaths 20th-century American politicians