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CSAA Remembers Jerry O’Brien

CSAA is saddened by the news that former AICC Chair Jerry O’Brien died August 30 from a heart attack while in Tampa, Florida.

“I assumed the role of chair of AICC from Jerry some 21 years ago,” said current AICC chair, and past CSAA president Lou Fiore. “He was a communications expert and worked in the alarm side as well as the communications side of technology. Jerry was a friend to many of us and will be missed.”

Jerry had a unique knowledge of telephone company tariffs and interconnection policies which affected the alarm industry and used his knowledge not only to benefit the company for which he worked in California, but the industry at large when he was later Chairman of AICC. Jerry was recognized for his extensive knowledge of private line tariffs, largely self-educated on the subject, and indeed, was acknowledged to have mastered that subject matter better than one of the major carriers whose tariff Jerry had challenged.  Subsequently, Jerry used his subject matter expertise to assist a start-up wireless company which later became a major wireless carrier in its own right and today constitutes  a core network component of T-Mobile.

He was also an Air Force combat veteran, having flown F-4 Phantom jets in the Vietnam conflict.

“Jerry was a good friend of mine,” said past CSAA president Bob Bitton. “Not only did he contribute greatly to the alarm industry with his extensive telecommunications expertise, but he lent that skill to my company when we were constructing our new building, and then recommended us to a new startup cellular telephone company that eventually went nationwide and took us with them.”

“Jerry saw the transition to digital as a communications medium many years before its eventual takeover,” said Fiore.

Jerry had many friends in the alarm industry and the wireless industry and is remembered, no doubt, by all of them.

Elizabeth Lasko, CSAA, September 15, 2015.  Many thanks to Ben Dickens for contributing to this article.