Former NHRAW President Remembered
Douglas O’Brien is survived by his wife of 68 years, Barbara, and by three children, seven grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and a brother.
Courtesy of Gaffney Funeral Home
SEATTLE — Douglas F. O’Brien, who owned a distribution company here and was an active member of an HVAC wholesalers association that was a forerunner of Heating, Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI), died July 1 at the age of 91.
O’Brien, a Seattle native, spent some 48 years in the HVAC industry, beginning in 1956 after attending the University of Washington and serving in the U.S. Army in Korea. He was the longtime president of McPherson Furnace and Equipment Co., which sold heating and air conditioning products to contractors in Northwest Washington state, and the firm expanded to facilities in Spokane and Yakima, Washington, and Anchorage, Alaska, during his time there.
He was also a member of the Northamerican Heating, Refrigeration & Airconditioning Wholesalers Association (NHRAW), serving as its president in 1974. NHRAW combined with the Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Wholesalers International (ARWI) in late 2002 to form HARDI, which began operating in January 2003.
McPherson was acquired by the distributor Gensco Inc., based in Tacoma, Washington, in 1989, and O’Brien continued working for another 16 years as a senior sales representative.
In an obituary published through the Gaffney Funeral Home in Tacoma, O’Brien was remembered for his love of family, his sense of humor, and his enjoyment of squash, golf, bicycling, and boating. He was a longtime member of St. Therese Catholic Church in Seattle, and a member of the Washington Athletic Club and the Queen City Yacht Club.
O’Brien is survived by his wife of 68 years, Barbara, whom he’d known since kindergarten, by three children, Terry O’Brien (Mary), Shannon Kimbrough (Kevin), and Maureen Cox (Rod), and by seven grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and his brother, the Rev. Roger O’Brien.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Franciscan Hospice House general fund, at https://connect.virginiamasonfoundation.org/vmfh-donation, or to any charity of the donor's choice.
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