James C. O’Shaughnessy

Obituary

James Canty O’Shaughnessy, 47, Executive Director of Planning and Construction for Stafford County, Virginia, Public Schools and a retired Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army, died suddenly Dec. 2 at his home in Stafford, Virginia.

Colonel O’Shaughnessy was born in Morris, Illinois. He graduated from Rich Central High School, Olympia Fields, Illinois in 1974 and from the U.S. Military Academy in 1978. He served for 20 years in the Army, including duty with the 3rd Infantry Division Artillery in Germany and the U.S. Army Recruiting Command in Peoria, Illinois. After earning a masters degree in nuclear engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1989, he served with the U.S. Army Nuclear and Chemical Agency and the Defense Special Weapons Agency. He joined the Stafford County, Virginia, Public Schools in 1999 as a Construction Planner and was employed there at the time of his death.

Survivors include his wife of 17 years, Christine A. O’Shaughnessy; four children, James, Brian, Eileen and Erin O’Shaughnessy; his mother, Alice C. O’Shaughnessy of Akron, OH; sisters Alice Hoekstra of Lansing, IL, Ann O’Connor of Mesa, AZ and Jean White of Akron, OH, brother, LTC Thomas O’Shaughnessy of Arlington, VA; aunt, Jean C. Lennon of Joliet, IL; cousins, nieces and nephews.

Visitation hours will be held Monday, December 8 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Mullins & Thompson Funeral Service, 186 Shelton Shop Rd., Stafford, VA. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Friday, December 19, 11 a.m. at St. William of York Catholic Church in Stafford, VA. Interment will be Friday, December 19, 2 p.m. at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA. The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Stafford County Head Start, 610 Gayle St., Fredericksburg, VA 22405.

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Eulogy

Jim’s eulogy is difficult because he wasn’t a talker. Although he accomplished more than any of us brothers and sisters, we knew little about his achievements because he didn’t promote himself. As a parent, he tied with his sister Jean for producing 4 children; he’s the only one who earned a master’s degree, and that at MIT, the most prestigious engineering school in the country; he was among the 25 percent of his West Point class who completed a 20-year Regular Army career, and after that he established a second career in which he rose to an executive position and made significant contributions to his community with Stafford County Public Schools. Interestingly, according to Christine, he listed “homemaker” on his resume to account for one year between his Army retirement and the beginning of his second career. He wasn’t bald, not even much gray, and he didn’t have a pot belly. He played with his kids, coached some local teams, and went to church. He exercised, didn’t smoke, watched his diet, and did what the doctor told him. So I must say that his death on the 2nd of December was very unfair. He did not deserve to die so soon.

When we were boys, our parents attended a college football game with friends one weekend – Notre Dame was playing Army. I believe their friends had their sights set on Notre Dame for their son, while our mother was impressed with the cadets. I believe that was the seed that eventually resulted in Jim’s gaining admission to West Point. Luckily, our father, a Marine veteran of WWII, proudly delivered Jim to West Point in July 1974 and saw him complete his first two years there before he died of a heart attack at age 53.

Jim spent the majority of his Army career, 8 years altogether, with the 3rd Infantry Division in Germany. As junior officers, our assignments in Germany overlapped for a period of about a year in the early 1980s. During that time, we enjoyed meeting somewhere on the weekend. We both enjoyed volksmarches, and our reward for getting some exercise was always grilled bratwurst and beer. We were Cold Warriors, too, - one weekend we drove the Soviet-controlled autobahn through East Germany to visit Berlin. Although we had our fun, the duty was demanding, especially in 3rd Infantry Division. And if the duty demands were not enough, Jim was demanding of himself.

As a recruiting company commander, Jim was responsible for 9 or 10 recruiting stations across a swath of downstate Illinois where corn and soybeans are grown on some of Illinois’ largest farms. He spent most of his time driving a government sedan, cris-crossing the state to supervise his recruiters working to fill the company’s monthly quota of recruits. Recruiting was a sales job and Jim was not a salesman. Jim acknowledged the mismatch – it was the only time I ever recall him talk about quitting the Army.

Jim and Chris got married in her home town of Tower City, Pennsylvania, in 1986. I was the best man and his West Point classmate Mark Shields was the groomsman. By the time Nina and I got married in 1993, Jim, Christine and the family were back in Germany with 3rd Infantry Division. We were married near Nina’s home in Denmark and I was very glad that Jim and the family could drive up from Germany, and that Jim could be my best man.

As field grade officers, our assignments overlapped in Germany again in the mid-1990s, and I was glad Jim could come to Heidelberg to attend Marie’s baptism, as well as other visits during that time. As a nuclear weapons effects officer with the US Army Nuclear and Chemical Agency, and later, with the Defense Special Weapons Agency, Jim analyzed the effects of our nuclear weapons on our adversaries to maximize our “bang-for-the-buck,” as well as the effects of our adversaries weapons on us, to maximize our chances of survival.

Jim joined Stafford County Public Schools at a time of population growth and the associated demand for new schools. During the 4 years he worked for Stafford County, he learned the business of school planning and construction and, last month, became the Executive Director of Planning and Construction. He had staff responsibility for planning new schools, renovating and expanding existing schools, and implementing a new procurement process involving public-private partnerships. He became Stafford County’s expert on public-private partnerships, developed some of the first requests for proposals in the state of Virginia, and guided both the School Board and the County Board of Supervisors through the evaluation, negotiation, and approval process.

I heard a remark a couple weeks ago from one of his co-workers about Jim’s first days on the job in Stafford. People wondered “what is he doing here?” He was a degreed nuclear engineer, and in his previous position he had been a “nuclear weapons effects officer.” His background did not appear to be transferable to the work of a School Board staff. What was he doing there, anyway? The answer I’ve gleaned is that, after moving from one assignment to the next about 10 times in the Army, Jim wanted a job that permitted him to stay put in Stafford. It also had to do with the men who interviewed him for the job, Joe Vilga and Dave Marsh. Joe was a retired colonel himself, and both men recognized Jim’s potential. Not only that, but Joe could envision his own retirement once he got Jim trained up to replace him.

According to what I heard last week from school principals and central office staff, Jim understood that children are the customers, and he kept that in mind in everything he did. Jim had a golden heart, and he knew that his fundamental responsibility in every plan and school construction project was to take care of children.

I learned in the past week that there are some in Stafford County Public Schools who support the dedication of a building in Jim’s honor. I think that is very fitting, and I might add that this is not unprecedented in Jim’s family. In Chicago there is a public elementary school named for our grandfather, Arthur E. Canty, for his leadership in the American Legion and the American Federation of Labor.

Jim earned everything he got in life, and he didn’t want anything unless it was earned. One of the things he earned the most was respect, and that was primarily because he gave respect. He was unassuming. He didn’t believe he was better than anyone else, so his burial at Arlington is fitting, since burials there are without regard to military rank, race, color, creed or gender. Jim had a penchant for looking out for the little guy and giving everyone a hearing. I heard about this in different ways. If success in life is to earn a child’s trust, then Jim was a big success. I saw how our 5-year old son Thomas and his Uncle Jim loved each other, but I also heard about Jim at the Pentagon, of all places. I was in a meeting there one day with a man named Rasheed Diallo who lives with his family in Stafford. Rasheed checked my nametag and asked if I knew the O’Shaughnessy’s in Stafford. Why yes, that’s my brother, I said. Rasheed went on to say what a nice family Jim had and how good Jim was at coaching his son. I also saw it last week when I met several men at Jim’s wake who do not customarily wear a tie to work. Yet these men put on a tie and came to the funeral home to return the respect to Jim that he had shown to them.

According to Christine, Jim was an “oversaver.” I thought I saw a balancing between Christine’s desire to make their kids happy now and Jim’s desire to make them happy in the future. Christine wanted to nurture curiousity and creativity while Jim focused on tomorrow’s dream of pursuing archeology or architecture. I think Jim learned from Christine and the kids how to live a little, have fun, and cultivate interest in something new, such as a family pet, or an interest in cars. In fact Jim experienced the ultimate new car “makeover” last year, and he had come to terms with the family’s dog Chewy in the past few months.

Jim was self-disciplined, the best kind of soldier. He never took the easy way out, never wavered, and he didn’t compromise. You could even say he was stubborn. According to his discharge papers, he was subject to recall by the Secretary of the Army even after retiring. Accordingly, when I asked James and Brian to help me find his blue uniform, we found it stored in Jim’s closet, in good condition, along with all his other uniforms. We updated his rack of ribbons, adding his highest award, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal he received upon his retirement. In honor of his 8 years’ service with 3rd Infantry Division, he was buried with the French Fourragere on his left shoulder.

For visitors, Arlington National Cemetery represents many different things. For some, the headstones and monuments are of historical interest; for many, it is an opportunity to remember and honor the nation's war heroes; now, for us, it is a place we said a last farewell to Jim. We will never look at Arlington the same way again, now that Jim is there. At the cemetery, the folded flag was presented to Christine, “on behalf of a grateful nation.” We are members of a grateful nation who knew Jim’s contributions. He wanted nothing but the best for his family, for his community, and for his country. His burial at Arlington is fitting because Christine wanted nothing but the best for him.

As I mentioned, our 5-year old son Thomas became very attached to his Uncle Jim, and one of the tragic aspects of Jim’s untimely death is the impact it has had on Thomas’ tender heart. One day last week, after he had seen his Uncle Jim in the casket and heard our plans to bury him at Arlington, he came up with his own plan. He said “Far, unicorns can bring people back to life. Maybe a unicorn can come to Uncle Jim’s grave and the soldiers can get the grass off and the next morning we can see him.”