Early Life and Studies
Born Patrick Kenneth O'Donnell in Worcester, Massachusetts, O'Donnell's first and middle names were legally switched in the 1960s. His father, Cleo O'Donnell, was the football coach for the Holy Cross Crusaders football team for two decades and later athletics director for all sports activities at the College of the Holy Cross. O'Donnell had an older brother, Cleo, who was a football star at Harvard during the 1940s.
During World War II O'Donnell served in the US Army Air Corps (1942–1945). After completing his service in the AAC, he studied at Harvard College 1946–1949. It was at Harvard that O'Donnell met Robert Kennedy, where they were roommates as well as teammates on the Harvard football team; O'Donnell became team captain in 1948. O'Donnell and Robert Kennedy remained close friends until Kennedy's assassination in 1968.
While at Harvard, O'Donnell married his wife, Helen, in 1947. They had five children, among them entrepreneur Kevin M. O'Donnell – in 1950 – and writer Helen O'Donnell – in 1962. Following graduation from Harvard, O'Donnell attended law school at Boston College from 1950–51. He later worked as a salesman for the Hollingsworth & Vose Paper Company and then the Whitney Corporation, both in Boston, from 1951–52. O'Donnell later worked in public relations from 1952–57.
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