Marty O’Fallon was a lawyer and engineer and helped his father with Denver’s first television station.
But O’Fallon, who died Jan. 29 at 84, was best known for helping people with legal, emotional, drinking or personal problems.
Many couldn’t pay him for legal services, but they would come by later and give him burritos or offer to upholster his office furniture, said longtime office partner John Kusic.
“I worked in legal aid, but Marty was the best legal aid lawyer I ever knew,” Kusic said.
“Some people spout Christian beliefs but do nothing. Marty got in there, rolled up his sleeves and lived those principles,” Kusic said.
O’Fallon had suffered from ALS for some time.
Much of O’Fallon’s generosity stemmed from his successful treatment 43 years ago for alcoholism. After that he was “on call” for anyone with substance-abuse problems.
“He was never judgmental, and he had the empathy,” Kusic said.
Even judges referred drinkers to O’Fallon, “and there were a lot of lawyers with drinking or drug problems,” Kusic said.
Joe O’Fallon said he has had calls from people “25 to 80 years old” who were helped by his father.
It didn’t matter if those in need were the well-known or the unknown, friends said.
If O’Fallon had clients who needed a 12-step program, “he’d take them,” said City Auditor Dennis Gallagher. “Can you imagine a lawyer who worried about your soul as well as your legal briefs?” he asked.
Marty O’Fallon seemingly kept in touch with everyone he knew, even having regular breakfasts with elementary school friends, his family said.
Martin Joseph O’Fallon was born in Denver on Oct. 12, 1926, and graduated from Cathedral High School.
He earned a degree in engineering physics at the University of Colorado and his law degree from the University of Denver.
He married Kathleen Ryan in 1951.
O’Fallon’s father, the late Eugene O’Fallon, owned radio station KFEL in the now-defunct Albany Hotel, said Joe O’Fallon. In 1952 he opened KFEL-TV (now channel 2), Denver’s first television station, according to a story in the Denver Business Journal.
Marty O’Fallon and his brothers helped operate the radio station’s controls on Lookout Mountain and Sloan’s Lake, and sold advertising for the station.
O’Fallon later told friends, “When it went on the air, everybody cheered.”
O’Fallon had no interest in being an on-air personality, said Joe O’Fallon, but he liked the engineering aspect.
In addition to his wife and son, Marty O’Fallon is survived by another son, Peter of Topanga, Calif.; two daughters, Molly O’Fallon of Littleton and Ann Clark of Highlands Ranch; 10 grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren; and a brother, Charles O’Fallon of Denver.Paid obituaries.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
