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.