Robert M. O'Hara

O'HARA, Robert M., age 83 of Kettering, Ohio, died peacefully with his family at his side on November 4, 2009 at Bethany's Memory Support. He is survived by his wife of 35 years, Barbara Nichols O'Hara, his daughter, Ani O'Hara of Seattle and his son, James (Stephanie) O'Hara of Oakwood. He is also survived by 3 sons Rick, Mark and Brian O'Hara all of Ga. He is also survived by five grandchildren, Michael, Patrick, Halle, Margaret and Shaun. The son of Michael and Helen O'Hara, Bob was born in Philadelphia on September 18, 1926. At the age of 17, he was commissioned Ensign in United States Navy. He served in the occupation in Japan and commanded major oil depot in Yokosuka, Japan. Upon returning to the U.S., he graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology "Georgia Tech", with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He worked his entire career for the Mead Corporation, starting off as a file clerk at the Atlanta Paper Company, which Mead purchased in 1957. In 1963, Mead asked Bob to move to Paris, France and named him, President, Mead Packaging, Europe. He built plants for Mead in France, Germany and Holland which commenced Mead's European operations. In 1967, he was named Vice President, Sales of Mead Packaging in 1967 and two years later was named President of Mead Packaging. In 1972, Bob was promoted to President, Mead Paper, managing over $700 million in annual sales. In 1974, Bob was named President of the Mead Advanced Systems Group in which he reported directly to Meads CEO and Chairman of the Board regarding the four units he managed: Mead Data Central (Lexis/Nexis), Mead Digital Systems, Mead Office Systems, and Mead CompuChem. Of these four, he was most proud of the successes he achieved in growing Lexis/Nexis from a small, entrepreneurial startup to one of Dayton's largest employers and a unit Mead ultimately sold to Reed Elsevier for $1.5 Billion. Under his helm, Lexis brought case law from all 50 states online and he personally signed The New York Times which positioned Nexis as the premier news retrieval engine. Bob was very active in the Dayton community serving on numerous boards and committees including the Dayton Art Institute Associate Board for which he co-chaired the Art Institute's Oktoberfest with his wife, Barbara. He also chaired the Dayton River Fest and Chaired Gerald Ford's Montgomery County political organization. Funeral services will be held on Monday, November 9th at 4:00pm at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Oakwood. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made to The Salvation Army, The Alzheimer's Association and the Humane Society of Greater Dayton. Condolences and other tributes may be sent to the family at www.routsong.com.

Funeral Home:
Kettering Routsong Funeral Home
2100 E. Stroop Rd.
Kettering, OH
US 45429