Trustees remember IU connection, friendships with governor

The flag at Memorial Stadium rested lifeless against its pole at half-mast Saturday. \nThe nearly 30,000 in attendance for the IU football game stood, but it wasn't to cheer a spectacular play. The moment of silence was IU's first of many tributes to alumnus and Indiana's 47th governor, Frank O'Bannon.\nFriends remembered O'Bannon's life as being a true testament to the Hoosier success story.\n"What you saw is what you got," IU trustee and longtime friend Peter Obremskey said. "He wasn't assuming, he wasn't arrogant, he wasn't all the things people can become when they reach a position of power."\nObremskey said he shared a special friendship with the governor. \nObremskey was a freshman at IU when he joined O'Bannon's law fraternity.\n"He was the adviser to freshmen, so he was the shoulder to cry on," he said. "He'd come over and if we had a problem, he would counsel us, talk to us and remind us that pledge training didn't last forever."\nSince those days, O'Bannon and Obremskey continued to grow close, often vacationing with each other's families and watching their children grow up.\n"Just being with the guy was such a pleasure," Obremskey said. "The Lord makes very few people like him."\nIU board of trustees President Fred Eichhorn met O'Bannon as an undergraduate at IU, later joining him in the Air Force and the IU School of Law. \nEichhorn remembered two weeks ago on campus when he saw his friend for the last time.\n"I remember that I was talking to someone and wasn't really aware that he was there, but then he came up and made his presence known," Eichhorn said. "It was a very uncommon thing for a person of his stature to do, but he came up and engaged me. I was surprised because I was looking in another direction, but we talked for about five minutes and then walked down the stairs together. That was the last time I saw him."\nIU Student Association President Casey Cox said he drafted a sympathy card to O'Bannon's wife on behalf of the student body.\n"It's a sad day for Indiana and it's very unfortunate that we lost a man of such esteemed Hoosier values," Cox said. "He comes from a small town and became governor. He embodied Indiana spirit and will be remembered for it."\nO'Bannon completed his undergraduate degree in government in 1952. He was a member of the IU basketball team and served two years in the Air Force before returning to IU. In 1957, he earned his law degree. That same year he met his wife Judy on a blind date.\nState Sen. Vi Simpson, D-Ellettsville, said she met her husband through O'Bannon.\n"Yesterday was very tough for me and my husband," Simpson said. "Frank performed our wedding ceremony and introduced us. Today we are doing what the new governor has asked us to do, which is remember the good times with Frank."\nIU President Adam Herbert called O'Bannon's legacy, "one that leaves our institutions strong and poised for excellence."\nO'Bannon committed himself to the development of two-year universities in an effort to compliment the states four-year institutions.\nO'Bannon's successor, Joe Kernan, declared Sunday a statewide day of remembrance to honor his political partner and friend.\n-- Contact senior writer Mitch Blacher at