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Stephen P. "Pat" O'Rourke died suddenly August 31, 1996 at his home in Topeka. "Pat" was a gruduate of THS and Washburn. He also attended Kansas State. He was employed by the State of Kansas for 33 years and achieved a ranking of Lieutenant in the Ks. Highway Patrol. He served as a personal security officer for three Kansas governors. He had also worked at Topeka State Hospital and Kansas Neurological Institute. Contributions were to go to Shawnee County Sheriff's Chapliancy Program or Spearfish Canyon Foundation. At his passing, he was all: husband, father and son.
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Robert W. Farnsworth
Pat and I were friends at Boswell. I think he and his family moved to Topeka about that time as when I met him they lived in an apartment somewhere near Washburn, I think, but then bought a tiny house on Webster and a block from me on Randolph. For a while, Pat and I would bike from Boswell to his house for lunch, watching "Our Miss Brooks" on TV while eating our sandwiches. No one was home as both his parents worked and his older brother was in high school or maybe even was older. Don't recall.
But as with so many earlier friends, once we hit high school we headed in different directions. Pat headed into the "wrong crowd," as might be said or so it appeared to me then, and became a rather toughened individual. I recall seeing him often in the halls and his demeanor had changed from being that more typical junior high kid to that of a brawler. He developed the nasty habit of spitting through his teeth. But he was a good friend to me even as we splintered apart and despite my feeble attempts to double date or do other things with him that were, by high school, too tame for him I guess. As I see other kids falter and veer off the proverbial road in high school, I have often thought of Pat and hoped he had regained control of his life later on but I never heard of or from him after THS. Maybe someone else knows more about him?
Timothy K. Stone
I remember Pat from Boswell - he practiced at shot put very diligently and was making good progess to the point where I thought I'd better get doing something or he'd pass my (less worked at) efforts. Pat did make good with his life - he told me and Kelly (Kelly's convenience and gas station at 6th and Wanamaker who knew us from Boswell days) that he had tried out for the police department at an older age - he became a lieutenant in the Captiol Police Division and was still employed there when he died.