‘HE HAD THE HEART OF A LION’
Lowell legend Mickey O’keefe dies at 75
LOWELL >> When Mickey O’keefe was motivating someone, trying to get them to push themselves further, he would say, “You can quit when you’re dead.”
It is a potent statement — recited recently by one of O’keefe’s four sons — that explains why the local legend lived the full life he did.
In addition to serving in the U.S. Army and the Lowell Fire Department, O’keefe was a member of the Lowell Police Department for nearly three and a half decades, where he was decorated for saving lives.
O’keefe was a loving husband, father, and grandfather, who was willing to help anyone who needed it.
O’keefe even played himself in the Oscar-winning movie, “The Fighter,” about the boxer he helped train — Lowell phenom, “Irish” Micky Ward. And, as Ward pointed out, O’keefe did it without taking a single acting class.
On Thursday, after a life well lived, the fight came to an end for O’keefe. He passed away at the age of 75 after a long battle with dementia.
“He liked people, and people liked him,” said former Lowell Police Superintendent Ed Davis. “He was one of those guys that would light up a room. I can’t tell you what a loss it is to understand he’s not with us anymore.”
O’keefe, the youngest of nine kids, was born and raised in Lowell. In 1967, he graduated from Lowell High, where he met what his obituary described as “the love of his life,” Donna O’keefe.
She would end up spending nearly 54 years as his wife.
The couple had four sons, Shaun, Timothy, and Brian O’keefe, and Keith Dillon. Dillon explained to The Sun in 2011 that the O’keefes took him in when both of his parents died before he was 10.
This brand of kindness was commonplace around the O’keefe household. Brian O’keefe said his father fixed up their attic in the family’s home on Gibson Street for a safe place for the down-and-out to stay.
“If our phone would ring, it didn’t matter the time of night, he would go out and help,” Brian O’keefe said about his father.
Though Mickey O’keefe was generous and kind, Brian O’keefe said his father would tell him, “Don’t mistake kindness for weakness.”
Brian O’keefe described his father as a “bull” with a “no quit attitude.” Mickey O’keefe was also a fierce competitor, particularly when it came to boxing. In the ring, he won both a Silver Mittens and a Golden Gloves championship.
Keeping with his desire to help others, Mickey O’keefe also spent time training many young
boxers.
He told The Sun in 2011 that he wanted to train others because boxing had helped him so much during his own youth.
“Boxing helped me stay off the streets as a kid,” Mickey O’keefe said at the time. “And I’ve seen it do the same for a lot of boys and girls over the years.”
On Saturday night, Ward expressed grief while talking about his former trainer’s death. He said Mickey O’keefe helped him out, not just with boxing, but life in general.
Mickey O’keefe was in Ward’s corner when he won the World Boxing Union’s Intercontinental light welterweight title against Louis Veader in Boston in 1996. It’s a championship that Ward said they won together.
Ward pointed out that Mickey O’keefe got him back into boxing at a time in his life when he was planning to quit.
“If it wasn’t for him, I’d probably have stopped,” Ward said. “Mickey said, ‘No, no, you got a lot left.’”
O’keefe’s powerful yet compassionate soul suited him well as a member of the Lowell Police Department. He served on the force for 34 years, earning the rank of sergeant.
“He looked at policing as a way to provide for his family, but to also help his community,” Davis said.
“His intentions were always honorable.”
Davis described O’keefe as a courageous cop, which was displayed by the lifesaving medals he earned for his heroics while wearing the badge.
In 2005, O’keefe safely disarmed a man who had placed a knife to a woman’s neck, drawing blood. The following year, O’keefe spent two hours with a man who had a gun to his own head, eventually convincing him not to pull the trigger.
As he was known to do, O’keefe deflected the glory while accepting his honors during a ceremony at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium in 2006.
“It’s not anything to do with me,” Mickey O’keefe said at the time. “It’s the people I’m with. I wasn’t alone.”
In 2011, O’keefe was forced to shoot a man armed with a knife as he charged at him and another officer. The man survived and was arrested for attempting to kill his mother prior to charging at officers. An investigation into the incident determined the shooting was justified.
Davis described O’keefe as an eternal optimist, who never wasted time on the negative.
“He looked for the good in people, and in a job where you can become very cynical, he never did,” Davis said.
In 2013, at the age of 65, Mickey O’keefe removed his badge for the last time and retired.
“We will always remember and honor Sergeant Mickey O’keefe’s legacy of service to the citizens of Lowell,” Lowell Police Superintendent Greg Hudon said in a statement to The Sun on Saturday. “He leaves many of us, who had the privilege to work with him, with memories and fond stories that will be repeated for years to come.”
It was approximately two years after retirement that Mickey O’keefe was diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia, a form of dementia that slowly erodes an individual’s ability to communicate.
In 2021, Mickey O’keefe moved to the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital in Bedford, where he lived out his days.
Brian O’keefe said his father was read his last rites in November. At the time, they did not think Mickey O’keefe would survive through the week. However, he fought on, and lived for approximately 10 more months.
“He had the heart of a lion,” Brian O’keefe said.
Davis, Ward and a few police officers went to Bedford to visit Mickey O’keefe this summer. Despite his deteriorating health, Davis said “there was still a spark in him.”
On Thursday, with loved ones and VA staff by his side, Mickey O’keefe took his final breaths.
“He certainly left a legacy for the entire city,” Brian O’keefe said. “Everybody, from all walks of life knew my father as a person, as a police sergeant, as a boxing coach, and just as a great human being.”
Mickey O’keefe’s obituary states all are welcome to attend his calling hours scheduled from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Mcdonough Funeral Home, at 14 Highland St., Lowell.
O’keefe’s funeral is scheduled at the funeral home at 9 a.m. Wednesday, followed by his funeral Mass at 10 a.m. at the Immaculate Conception Church, 144 E. Merrimack
St. A procession will follow for burial and military honors at Lowell Cemetery on Knapp Avenue.
To send condolences to the O’keefe family, visit mcdonoughfuneralhome. com.
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