Richard Lowell O’Brien was born in September 1924 in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, one of seven children of William Edward and Lola O’Brien. The family moved to and lived in the Los Angeles Harbor area, including on Crenshaw Boulevard in Torrance. The father worked as a master mechanic at the Douglas Aircraft Plant before he passed away from a heart attack in 1943. Sadly, one of O’Brien’s brothers died in a vehicle accident one year earlier in 1942.

O’Brien was inducted into the U.S. Army in March 1943 and served with the 145th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division. He was sent overseas in September 1944 where shortly thereafter he was awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge for exemplary conduct in the Pacific war theater. No details are known at this time, but on April 25, 1945, Private First Class Richard L. O’Brien was killed in action on Mount Pacawagan, Luzon (an island in the Philippines) that was part of a network of Japanese fortifications. 

He was awarded the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster and is buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines. O’Brien never married and was survived by his mother and five siblings, including his sister Dorothy who was a student at Torrance High School. His older brother William was stationed at the U.S. Naval Reserve Aviation Base in New Orleans and at the U.S. Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida.