O'Malley Funeral Home

So, in an era before pocket inhalers and pharmaceutical advances, his parents made the tough decision to put him on a train from their home in Chicago to a boarding school in New Mexico, hoping the desert climate might help him survive to adulthood.Young Al returned to the city after high school, but his asthma came back. So he headed west again, growing strong enough to play football for what would become Western New Mexico University.According to his son Dennis, he had a memorable gridiron encounter there with a colossal rival named Dan Blocker, who went on to Hollywood fame as “Hoss” on TV’s “Bonanza.” “Dan Blocker ran into my father to block him and knocked him out cold,” Dennis O’Malley said.To ease his homesickness, he focused on tennis, football and academics. “He really thrived out there,” said his daughter Debbie O’Malley-McKeown. “He was captain of the football team and editor of the [school] paper.”A young Al O’Malley and his future wife Pat. They got married in 1955. Provided photoMr. O’Malley, a retired Chicago banker who for decades was chairman and chief executive officer of Standard Bank, died Monday at 89.After learning his stomach cancer was inoperable, his kids surprised him at his retirement home in Bonita Springs, Florida, with one last pool party.Then, they brought him and Trixie, his Shih Tzu, back to Beverly. They wanted him to be surrounded by family when he died — and so did Mr. O’Malley.Al O’Malley’s children gathered for a final party at his retirement home in Bonita Springs, Florida, before bringing him back to Beverly, where he died. Provided photoHis early separation from his parents and siblings “gave him a very strong sense of family,” his daughter said, “because I think he missed them so much.”His mother, the former Catherine Sheil, grew up in Swinford, County Mayo, Ireland. His father Michael, an engineer for the Illinois Central Railroad, was from Creggs, County Roscommon. His brother Michael O’Malley said their dad named his oldest son after Al Smith, who in 1928 — the year Mr. O’Malley was born — became the firs... (Chicago Sun-Times)