George Dennis O'Brien (born February 21, 1931) is an American philosopher who served as the eighth President of the University of Rochester.
His father was also a medical examiner and the young O'Brien accompanied him to autopsies he performed at local funeral homes.
At UR, he introduced several innovations, including the "Take Five" program, the Rochester Conference, which brought high-profile speakers to the River Campus from 1987 to 1990, and a weekly University Day to bring faculty and undergraduates together for interchange of ideas.
[3] In 1987, he had to deal with the fallout from William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration's rescinding the admission of a Fujifilm employee to its MBA program after senior Eastman Kodak officials voiced their concern that they would have to pull their executives out of the same program to prevent the possibility of industrial espionage.
[5] After retiring from UR in 1994, he served as chair of the Commonweal Foundation and on the board of La Salle University.