Friends, Family Mourn Victim of Air Crash

As the melody of “Amazing Grace” swept through Our Lady of Angels Church in Newport Beach on Sunday, mourners gathered in memory of 35-year-old William F. O’Gara Jr., one of the 229 people killed on board Swissair Flight 111 earlier this month.

Several hundred friends and family members cried and prayed over the loss of O’Gara, a handsome man with black hair and deep blue eyes, who died when the jetliner slammed into Canadian waters Sept. 2, killing all aboard.

O’Gara, of Villa Park, was one of three Orange County residents who perished in the flight. Tom and Julie Sperber of San Juan Capistrano also were aboard the flight.

Those who knew O’Gara sought solace in their faith to overcome their tremendous sadness.

“This is the saddest day of my life,” O’Gara’s younger brother, James, said in his eulogy. “It was just a few weeks ago that my brother was the best man at my wedding. That was the happiest day of my life. He always took care of me. He was my older brother.”

There are no words to bring consolation to those who have suffered such a tragedy, Father Sean Condon said. The only way to cope, he said, is to find comfort in faith.

“William was so young and so tragically taken from us and his family,” he said. “The grief is just beyond words. . . . Tragedy brings us down to earth as it also brings us together.”

Condon said he was deeply moved by the strength William O’Gara’s mother, Piedad O’Gara, has shown in the wake of the tragedy. At the scene of the wreckage off the coast of the picturesque town of Peggy’s Cove, Piedad O’Gara said she found a kinship with the other families whose relatives had perished, Condon said.

William O’Gara had called his mother a few minutes before his flight left for Geneva, telling her that he loved her and that he would see her soon.

“She was healed by her experience with the bonding and support of the families in grief. . . . May [William’s] soul and the souls of those who died in that terrible tragedy off of Peggy’s Cove rest in the peace of God’s house,” he said.

William O’Gara, a real estate agent, had a terrific sense of humor, his friends said Sunday. He was known as a prankster but also a very giving individual who had been supporting his mother financially since his father was hospitalized with a brain tumor.

A 1981 graduate of Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, he also was known for his upbeat attitude and sense of style, said Shawn Escalante, a friend of 14 years.

“He was very lighthearted,” said Escalante, who met O’Gara when both worked at I. Magnin in South Coast Plaza. “He was never down. Never.”

Dennis Anderson, a friend of O’Gara’s for 15 years, said: “He was, without cliches, the nicest person I have ever known. . . . It makes me proud to have known him.”