Conan O’Brien’s parents, who were married for 66 years, die 3 days apart

Dr. Thomas O’Brien and his wife Ruth Reardon O’Brien, parents of comedian Conan O’Brien, have died three days apart. Thomas was 95 and Ruth was 92.

Thomas died on Monday 9 December after “his health had failed”, Boston Globe reports. His wife died “peacefully” on Dec. 12, according to an obituary shared by Bell-O’Dea Funeral Home in Brookline, Mass.

The couple were married for 66 years and shared six children together, including Conan, 61, who credits his father with his love of stand-up comedy.

PEOPLE reached out to Conan for comment, though the former Show tonight host talked about his father’s father’s death to The globe.

Thomas introduced his children to comedy classics such as Jack Benny, Charlie Chaplin and the Marx Brothers. “The loudest I ever heard anyone laugh was sitting next to him in a theater watching Peter Sellers in a Pink Panther movie,” Conan recalled. “(My dad) was often the funniest guy in the room. And when he laughed, his whole body convulsed and he almost hugged himself.”

Thomas was best known for his work in antimicrobial drug resistance research and served as the first director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at what is now Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His career spanned more than 60 years at Brigham and Women’s and Harvard Medical School, where he was an associate professor. He retired in 2019 at the age of 90.

“Science has said there’s no such thing as perpetual motion, but my dad was proof that wrong,” said Conan, who shares children Neve, 21, and Beckett, 19, with wife Liza. “My father was in constant motion. And he was interested in everything – absolutely everything.”

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Conan added of his father: “(He) had a voracious appetite for ideas and people and the crazy variety and irony of life. He wanted to go everywhere, meet everyone, see everything, taste everything.”

“For the rest of my time on earth, I will hear from people who want to talk to me about my father,” Conan said. “I’ve never met anyone like him and he happens to be my dad. If I happened to meet him in a hotel lobby, I’d be like, ‘Who the hell is this guy? He is the most interesting person I have ever met.’ ”

Ruth, meanwhile, attended Yale Law School as one of four women in her class. She served as a law clerk at the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and later as a real estate attorney at the Boston law firm of Ropes & Gray. In 1978, she became the second ever female partner in the firm. In 2017, she was the second recipient of iRelaunch Pioneering Relauncher Award.

Thomas married Ruth in 1958 after meeting her through her brothers, who were his classmates.

In addition to Conan, the couple is also survived by their sons Justin, Neal and Luke and daughters Kate and Jane, as well as nine grandchildren.

A funeral Mass will be held for the couple on Wednesday, December 18, in Chestnut Hill, Mass.