O'Rourke

Gerald A. "Jerry" O'Rourke, 75, of 111 Glenwood Drive, Center Township, died at 10:45 a.m. Wednesday at West Penn Hospital, Pittsburgh.

Born Sept. 27, 1931, in Hempstead on Long Island, N.Y., he was the son of James F. and Mildred McGuire O'Rourke.

He had been a criminal investigator with the Maryland State Police and a deputy U.S. Marshal with the U.S. Department of Justice. He was employed in security management positions at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair, the Flying Tigers Cargo Airline and the Franklin Stores Corp. He became self-employed in 1978 as an independent security management consultant and established Strategic Controls in New York, N.Y.

From 1960 to 1964 while with the U.S. Marshals Service, he participated in the enforcement of federal school integration orders in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. He was part of a contingent of U.S. marshals that protected the Freedom Riders from Birmingham to Montgomery Alabama in 1962 and was one of the three U.S. Marshals immortalized in a Norman Rockwell Painting during the integration process.

Following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, he was one of the U.S. Marshals selected to protect Robert Kennedy in the Washington, D.C. area.

Mr. O'Rourke was a member of St. Paul Roman Catholic Church and served on the Safety/Security Committee of the Diocese of Pittsburgh Schools.

He was a graduate of DeMatha Catholic High School, the Maryland State Police Academy, the U.S. Marshals Academy and the Security Management Institute and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. From 1984 to 1995, he was an adjunct instructor at John Jay College, where he taught physical security.

He was a founding member of the Maryland State Police Alumni Association. He was a founder of the International Association of Professional Security Consultants, where he was designated a Meritorious Life Member. He was also a member of the American Society for Industrial Security International.

He was a nationally recognized expert in apartment house security and was the author of "Apartment House Security 101."

During the Korean War, he served as a hospital corpsman in the Navy and received the American Spirit Honor Medal and an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy.

Surviving are his wife, Anne Bryan O'Rourke, whom he married June 10, 1978; his children from his first marriage, Maureen Darragh, Kathleen Dyrland, Timothy, Sean, Charles and Daniel O'Rourke, all of Long Island, and Mary Dolan of Dallas, Texas; two sisters, Carol Powers of Lenexa, Kan., and Mildred Martin, and 11 grandchildren.

Two brothers preceded him in death.

<B>O'ROURKE </B>— Friends of Gerald A. "Jerry"O'Rourke, who died Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2006, will be received from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at the <B>Thompson-Miller Funeral Home</B>, 124 E. North St. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Paul Roman Catholic Church, 128 N. McKean St. with the Rev. Harry Bielewicz officiating. Burial will be at the Calvary Cemetery.Information also is available at www.thompson-miller.com.