Peter Joseph O'Grady

A Life of Learning, Service, and Love

Peter Joseph O'Grady lived a life that read like a Dickens novel and resonated through a baritone voice that boomed in ALL CAPS- from the cobblestone streets of Drogheda, Ireland, to the bustling newsrooms of Manhattan, from military service across three continents to decades of humble community service that touched countless lives.

Born September 2, 1942, at St. Mary's Hospital in Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland, Peter began life within the Mother & Baby Home system of the era. His earliest years were spent in St. Vincent's orphanage, where he formed unbreakable bonds with his younger "siblings" Marie and Peggy, whom he lovingly "adopted" as his own. The three children were later fostered and welcomed into the Morris family, where Peter was known as "Gerry" - a name his siblings cherish to this day.

His childhood in Drogheda was marked by humble work and simple joys: delivering medicines for Luke J. Healy's chemist, helping at the local butcher, and working on Beaulieu Farm with scoldings for eating "thin turnips and Blood of the Boyne apples." His older brother Tom brought salmon home from the River Boyne, and the boys fashioned footballs (soccer balls) from twine and paper wrapped around potatoes, playing on the green at Laburnum Square. These incredibly lean years shaped a loving, humble man-- who never wasted a meal- with an eternal sense of home and an instinct for home-seeking that would define his entire life.

When his adoptive parents died during his teenage years, Peter faced a choice that would change everything. Rather than return to the orphanage, he somehow found his birth mother's address in England and courageously crossed the sea to Weymouth to knock on Bridget Veronica O'Grady's ("Vera") door. There he met his half-brother Geoffrey, a brief moment in a relationship that would bloom and bring joy decades later. In the complexities of the post-war era, Vera signed "Gerry" - now "Peter" per his birth certificate- into the British Army's youth corps, launching the young Irishman into the wider world.

Military service became Peter's gateway to dignity and purpose. As a young Irishman in the British Army, he found refuge in the Green Jackets Brigade band, mastering the French horn, euphonium, and trumpet. His service took him across Europe and the Mediterranean - from Winchester to Germany's Wuppertal-Elberfeld, from Cyprus to the Far East, including Malaysia. One Cyprus family's ongoing kindness particularly shaped him, encouraging him to look to the United States after the service. (This led to his liberal use of the familiar greeting "Yia sou!" to Greek or Cyprian friends.)

In 1964, after originally planning to settle in Boston (a journey delayed by President Kennedy's assassination), Peter found his American dream in Inwood, Upper Manhattan, in the same Dyckman Street building where young Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) was also making his way in the city. Peter's first job at the NYU Bookstore - perfect for a voracious reader who spent afternoons at Gaelic Park - led to an opportunity that would define the next four decades of his life.

A simple request to bicycle a reel of film across town became Peter's entry point to NBC at 30 Rockefeller Center, beginning a 38-year career that would span television's golden age. His fortunes rose with the medium itself. He worked on NBC Nightly News and Today, spent memorable time around Saturday Night Live ("wild times," he'd grin), and even served briefly as the "elevator guy" on Late Night with David Letterman. He greeted guests in the Today show wings and proudly brought home autographs for his daughters. Friends and family would look for him singing, sometimes in a Santa hat, at the NBC News Christmas Tree singalong.

Peter's career evolved with technology - from film editor to video specialist to electronic journalism and digital media archivist - but his mission remained constant: helping colleagues honor events and people with speed, accuracy, and care. As a proud NABET shop steward, he helped carry to air the great arcs of American and world news: Detroit in 1968, Vietnam's final years and POW returns, the Apollo missions and 1969 moon landing, Watergate and Nixon's resignation, the Iran hostage crisis, President Reagan's assassination attempt, the Challenger disaster, the Berlin Wall's fall, the Gulf War, Oklahoma City, and the approach of the millennium.

He retired just weeks before September 11, 2001, and grieved that day's losses as a New Yorker no longer inside the newsroom telling the stories of friends and neighbors. He kept his NBC ID in his wallet until the end and wore his 25-year Movado watch with quiet pride. (Peter loved to dress well.)

Beyond his professional achievements, Peter found deep meaning in faith and community service. For years he served as a lay minister at Cure of Ars Catholic Church in Merrick, New York, and as a leader in the Father Jeremiah J. Reilly Council of the Knights of Columbus, "selling chances" after Mass and welcoming families to the annual Lido Beach Seafood Festival. Summers often meant Four Green Fields in Accord, New York - a close-knit Irish-American community featuring ceilí dances, Irish bands, summer bonfires, and golf at Rondout Valley Country Club- where his children learned what it meant to be both New Yorkers and Irish.

In 2002, Peter and his devoted wife Grace retired to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where he immediately began building another circle of cherished relationships. At St. Thomas More Parish, he served as a Eucharistic Minister and brought Communion to patients at UNC Medical Center. He remained active in the VFW and American Legion, and became a fixture at the Chapel Hill Senior Center pool tables, arriving with his perfectly polished cue and characteristic wink. A devoted Tottenham Hotspur supporter to the end, he loved the beautiful game he had played seriously during his Army years and the camaraderie that sport inspired.

In recent years, Peter spent increasing time in Fairfield, Connecticut, with his grandchildren, quickly weaving himself into yet another community centered on the Senior Center at Mona Terrace and the Gaelic-American Club, proving once again that an Irishman can find Home anywhere. His community at Bishop Wicke held him in their care in his final days.

Peter embodied the truth that the world is a wide place filled with endless possibility, and a new friendship steeped in generosity and good humor is but one heartfelt greeting or conversation away. He leaves behind his loving wife Grace of Chapel Hill, NC, and Fairfield, CT; his brother Geoffrey [Karen] of Weymouth, England; his sister Marie [Desi] of Drogheda, Ireland; his daughters Kathleen O'Grady of Raleigh, NC, and Erin O'Grady [William F. Reed] of Fairfield, CT; and his treasured grandchildren Ellison (Ella) and William H. He was preceded in death by his mother Bridget Veronica O'Grady, his adoptive parents Roseanne and Owen Morris, his sister Margaret (Peggy) [Michael] of London, and his brother Tom of Drogheda.

A small family memorial will be held Wednesday at Oak Lawn Cemetery in Fairfield, Connecticut. Peter requested a proper celebration of life with music, stories, and good fare - details for this public celebration will be shared in the coming weeks. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to Visiting Angels, and invites all who knew Peter to share a story, song, or poem in his memory.

Peter's legacy lives on in every stranger made to feel welcome, every story told with care and accuracy, every hand extended in friendship, and every heart that learned from his example that the secret to a rich life is simple: be constantly curious and learning and you will find home, heart, and a new friend wherever you go.