Was a strong voice on Council<\/b><\/p>\n
Kent City Councilman Bob O\u2019Brien, in his third year on the Council, died Wednesday after a long battle with cancer. He was 76.<\/p>\n
\u201cBob was a man who remained true to his heart and beliefs, maintaining his perspective on the role of government and its relationship to the<\/p>\n
citizens,\u201d said Council President Debbie Raplee in a city media release. \u201cThrough it all, Bob was faithful in upholding the best interest of the citizens first and foremost. Bob was a very intelligent man, had a great sense of humor, a good friend to many, and to say he will be missed is an understatement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Voters elected O\u2019Brien, who lived on Scenic Hill, in 2005 to begin a four-year term that expired at the end of 2009. O\u2019Brien, a Kent resident for more than 30 years, also served on the the city\u2019s Public Safety Committee as well as the Planning and Economic Development committees.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien previously served as chair of the Kent Kiwanis Club and the Kent Youth Soccer Association. He retired after 30 years in the logistics business. He earned a masters of business administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
\u201cBob provided a unique perspective on issues,\u201d said Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke in a press release. \u201cHe was frank about his opinions, voted independently, and offered a valuable voice that needed to be heard on behalf of many Kent residents. It was an honor to serve with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien attended the April 1 Council meeting, but missed the April 15 meeting.<\/p>\n
Survivors include his wife, Dagmar, and three children.<\/p>\n
Details on a memorial service were pending as of Thursday.<\/p>\n
Contact Steve Hunter at 253-872-6600, ext. 5052 or shunter@reporternewspapers.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kent City Councilman Bob O\u2019Brien, in his third year on the Council, died Wednesday after a long battle with cancer. He was 76.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":212,"featured_media":23359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-23358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23358"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/212"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23358"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=23358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}