Tim O'Brien (author)

William Timothy "Tim" O'Brien (born October 1, 1946) is an American novelist best known for his work of fiction, The Things They Carried (1990), a critically acclaimed collection of semi-autobiographical, interrelated short stories inspired by O'Brien's experiences in the Vietnam War. In addition, he is known for his war novel, Going After Cacciato (1978), also written about wartime Vietnam.

O'Brien has held the endowed chair at the MFA program of Texas State University–San Marcos every other year since the 2003-2004 year (i.e. 2003-2004, 2005-2006, 2007-2008, 2009–2010, and 2011-2012).

Life and career

O'Brien was born in Austin, Minnesota. When he was seven, his family, including a younger sister and brother, moved to Worthington, Minnesota. Worthington had a large influence on O’Brien’s imagination and early development as an author. The town is located on Lake Okabena in the western portion of the state and serves as the setting for some of his stories, especially those in the novel The Things They Carried. He earned his BA in Political Science from Macalester College, where he was student body president, in 1968. That same year he was drafted into the United States Army and was sent to Vietnam, where he served from 1969 to 1970 in 3rd Platoon, Company A, 5th Battalion, 46th Infantry Regiment. He served in the division that contained a unit involved in the infamous My Lai Massacre. O'Brien has said that when his unit got to the area around My Lai (referred to as "Pinkville" by the U.S. forces), "we all wondered why the place was so hostile. We did not know there had been a massacre there a year earlier. The news about that only came out later, while we were there, and then we knew."

Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien or Timothy O'Brien may refer to:

See also

Tim O'Brien (rugby)

Tim O'Brien is an American rugby union coach. He is currently the head coach for Saint Mary's College, which plays in Division 1-A.

O'Brien starred while playing college rugby as a student at Cal. O'Brien also played for the United States national rugby union team, earning three caps between 1980 to 1983 playing as a center and wing. O'Brien then coached the Old Blues rugby club and Lamorinda youth rugby.

Under O'Brien's leadership St. Mary's has become one of the leading college rugby teams in the United States. When O'Brien took over as Saint Mary's head coach in 2001, he transformed the program from a recreational, social activity to a competitive varsity-type program. O'Brien's team quickly found success, with Saint Mary's reaching the quarterfinals of the national playoffs in 2002.

In 2007, St. Mary's finished ranked fifth in the country, having beaten then #5 ranked Army in the national playoffs. O'Brien was named coach of the year by American Rugby News for the 2006–07 season. O'Brien led St. Mary's to the national semifinals in 2008.

Sir Tim O'Brien, 3rd Baronet

Sir Timothy Carew O'Brien, 3rd Baronet (5 November 1861, Dublin – 9 December 1948, Ramsey, Isle of Man) was an Irish baronet who played cricket for England in five Test matches.

A forceful right-handed batsman, O'Brien played in 266 first class cricket matches as an amateur for Oxford University (where he studied at New Inn Hall and won a Blue in 1884) and 1885 and in fairly regular appearances for Middlesex through to 1898. His 92 for Oxford against the 1884 Australians was instrumental in the university's only victory over an Australian team. He played for England against Australia at Old Trafford that year and again four years later at Lord's, but in neither game did his distinguish himself.

He toured with MCC teams twice: in 1887–88 he went with George Vernon to Australia and in 1895–96 he went with Lord Hawke's side to South Africa, where he acted as captain once against South Africa at Port Elizabeth in February 1896, winning the game largely as a result of George Lohmann's match return of 15/45 (7/38 and 8/7).