William J. "Bill" O'Brien (February 19, 1930 in

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...

– June 25, 2007) was a

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

Republican politician, who served as

Minnesota State Auditor The state auditor of Minnesota is a constitutional officer in the executive branch of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Nineteen individuals have held the office of state auditor since statehood. The incumbent is Julie Blaha, a Democratic-Farmer-Labor ...

and a member of the

Minnesota House of Representatives The Minnesota House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the U.S. state of Minnesota's Minnesota Legislature, legislature. It operates in conjunction with the Minnesota Senate, the state's upper chamber, to write and pass legislation, whic ...

. O'Brien also unsuccessfully sought the office of

Minnesota Secretary of State The secretary of state of Minnesota is a constitutional officer in the executive branch, executive branch of government of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Twenty-two individuals have held the office of secretary of state since statehood. The incumbe ...

. Born in

, O'Brien moved to Minnesota in his youth. He graduated from St. Paul Academy, and went on to college at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, where he studied

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

. He returned to Minnesota to complete his education, earning a degree in finance. He later worked as an investment counselor. O'Brien was elected to the

in 1962, and again in 1964. In 1969, he was appointed to the office of

by governor Harold LeVander. O'Brien had four daughters and one stepdaughter; he was married twice. He died in 2007.Minnesota Legislators Past and Present
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References

Republican Party members of the Minnesota House of Representatives 2007 deaths Cornell University alumni 1930 births 20th-century members of the Minnesota Legislature {{Minnesota-MNRepresentative-Republican-stub