Obituaries

Dr. Christopher Joseph O’Brien, nicknamed “Tippy,” passed away peacefully on June 22, 2024, at the age of 51, after a long and hard-fought battle with Huntington’s disease (HD).

Born on Christmas day in 1972 to a family with a strong Catholic faith, Christopher’s six older siblings lobbied their parents to name him Jesus. Mom Alice and dad David may have briefly considered saying yes, but ultimately decided against it.

When he was very young, Christopher essentially lost his mother, Alice, to the ravages of Huntington’s disease and, because the disease is genetic, Christopher grew up knowing that he might one day share her fate.  This loss and this knowledge shaped the person he was – someone with a love of life that was matched by few others.  In every aspect of his life, Christopher pursued excellence, sought out challenges and adventure, took care of his friends and loved ones, as well as strangers, and overall had more fun than just about everyone.

Growing up, Christopher swam competitively, achieved his Eagle Scout badge, and was both the class president and valedictorian of his graduating class at Bishop Cunningham High School in 1991. In college at Yale University, Christopher swam on the varsity team and began pursuing his dream of becoming a neurologist and a researcher in the hope that one day he might help people with HD and be part of finding a cure. After graduating from Yale in 1995 with a degree in the History of Science and Medicine, he explored Thailand and China and then started medical school at St. George’s School of Medicine on the Caribbean island of Grenada.  He later transferred to Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, finding time to play club rugby while there and graduating with his MD and PhD in 2005.  

Throughout medical school, Christopher was actively involved in Huntington’s disease research and traveled to Venezuela several times as part of the U.S.-Venezuela Huntington’s Disease Collaborative Research Project led by Dr. Nancy Wexler, President of the Hereditary Disease Foundation. Christopher also participated in clinical trials and raised money and awareness for HD research.

In 1998, Christopher began what would grow into a lifelong love of climbing with a successful summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro together with his father David and his brother Michael.  It was during that trip that they met Protus Mayunga, the guide who carried dad David all the way down the mountain because he had only trained for the uphill part of the climb. In response to Protus’s heroic effort, they invited him to come to the U.S. to live, study, and become a member of the O’Brien family. It was Christopher who later traveled to Tanzania, refusing to leave the country until he had surmounted all of the bureaucratic obstacles, which included crashing a party at the U.S. Embassy in Dar Es Salaam, and was together with Protus on a plane bound for the U.S.

All throughout his MD and PhD schooling, Christopher doted on Paco, his three foot long pet iguana, ran marathons, learned to scuba dive, diving at night in the infamous Blue Hole in Belize, and continued to travel the globe and climb mountains including some of the world’s tallest peaks – Mt. Kenya, Mt. Cho Oyu and Mt. Everest.  During one climb in the Himalayas, Christopher and his team came across a Polish climber who was suffering from cerebral edema.  The climber’s team had abandoned him so that they could summit, basically leaving him to die.  Christopher and his team put their own plans to summit on hold, in order to care for him.

But it was the attempt on Mt. Everest in 2005, where Christopher encountered one of his life’s greatest challenges. As part of the expedition, he and his brother Michael ran a campaign to raise awareness for HD and funds for the Hereditary Disease Foundation, an organization dedicated to funding research to cure HD. Four weeks into the climb, on a cloudless sunny day, Michael slipped and fell into a crevasse. Christopher, weeks away from earning his MD, performed lifesaving measures on Michael but was unable to save him.  Christopher held Michael in his arms as he drew his final breath.

Upon his return to the U.S., Christopher graduated from medical school and began his clinical rotations. It was in Houston while he was doing his neurology residency where he met Liliana Aguilar, the love of his life and the woman who would later become his wife.  It is also in Houston where the symptoms of HD became apparent in Christopher, resulting in him being unable to complete his neurology residency.  He continued to work as a doctor and pursued his love of the outdoors including climbing and running marathons. One blistering hot day while out running, Christopher came upon a litter of six newborn puppies which had been abandoned near a dumpster. Christopher insisted on bringing them home and keeping them, and as they were too young to be adopted, he and Lily fed and nourished them through an eyedropper for several months until they were old enough to be adopted. 

In the summer of 2016, Christopher and Lily returned to his roots in upstate NY with four of the puppies and their two grown dogs in tow and with Christopher’s HD symptoms fully evident. Despite the balance, coordination, and speech challenges that HD presented, Christopher continued to regularly run outside in the streets with his faithful dogs beside him off the leash, ice climb annually with dear friends in the Adirondacks, and volunteer for his alma mater conducting interviews for prospective Yale students. 

Having run numerous marathons, summitted many mountain peaks, and developed cherished friendships across the country and around the globe, it was at home in upstate NY, together with Lily, and his beloved dogs Baloo and Tookie (one of the puppies he refused to give away) that Christopher was happiest.  As his disease progressed, it became more difficult for Christopher to travel but Lily was always by his side planning for and anticipating his every need.  This ensured that he could travel to important family events, especially to be together with his extended family during the holidays so that Christopher could create treasured memories with Lily, his sisters, brothers-in-law, nieces, and nephews.   

Christopher will forever be remembered as a thoughtful and loving husband, brother, uncle, and friend who never gave up hope, or lost his mischievous sense of humor. Always embracing life and bringing joy to those around him, Christopher faced Huntington’s disease with courage, grace, and dignity.  

His family would like to thank the loyal friends and family members who called, sent cards and visited during the last few years when Christopher had difficulty leaving the house. He thrived on these personal connections. His family would like to thank the University of Rochester hospice team who so lovingly cared not only for Christopher, but for all of us during his final weeks. The family would like to acknowledge and thank Christopher’s caregivers from Elite, especially Maxine Bostick and Kelly Garcia who spent countless hours with him and became like family. Finally, his family would like to thank Dr. Frederick Marshall, his devoted neurologist who became a dear friend, as well as the entire HD Center of Excellence team at the University of Rochester Medical Center, for their commitment, dedication, and unwavering support of Christopher and Lily over the past decade as his Huntington’s disease progressed.

Christopher is survived by his wife, Liliana; sisters Kathryn Caltabiano and Meghan (Bruce) Donaldson; brother Protus Mayunga; brothers-in-law Anthony Caltabiano and Dave Barry; and much-loved cousins Rob and Aimee McLean. Christopher was a loving uncle to Anthony (Jennifer), Kristina (fiancé Thomas Gryczka), and Sean Caltabiano; Conor and Matthew Barry; Deacon, Dagny, Dante, and Dominique Donaldson; Elijah and Achaia Gindele; Protus Jr., Erastus, and Sabina Mayunga; along with Lily’s children, Jeremy and Celeste Aguilar; grandchildren Emma & Maliyah Aguilar; and a large extended family and dear friends.  

Christopher was predeceased by his parents Mrs. Alice and Dr. David D. O’Brien Jr., siblings, Diane Barry, Alice Ross, David D. O’Brien III, and Michael O’Brien.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you please consider a gift in Christopher’s memory to the Hereditary Disease Foundation, an organization dedicated to curing Huntington’s disease at https://www.hdfoundation.org/donate-today.

Calling hours will take place at Dain-Cullinan Funeral Home in Oswego, NY on Friday June 28 from 4pm-6:30pm. At 6:30, family members and friends will have an opportunity to share memories at the funeral home. A memorial Mass will be celebrated on Saturday, June 29th at 10am at St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Oswego, followed by a burial at St. Peter’s cemetery in Oswego.