Stanford Business

AUGUST 2006


Posthumous Lessons


Gene O'Kelly, 1952-2005
Photo courtesy of McGraw Hill

In his own words, Gene O’Kelly, MBA ’77, was a lucky guy. CEO and chair of the accounting firm KPMG at only 53, O’Kelly had a job he loved, a family he adored, and a future as bright as anyone could imagine. Then, in May 2005, he was told he had three months to live. “I was blessed,” he wrote.

The accounting executive spent those months balancing the spreadsheet of his life as he managed his departure from it. “My sensibilities about work and accomplishment, about consistency and continuity and commitment, were so ingrained in me from my professional life, and had served me so well in that life, that I couldn’t imagine not applying them to my final task,” he wrote. “And—not to be overlooked—my final experience taught me some things that, had I known them earlier, would have made me a better CEO and person.”

O’Kelly told his story in Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life (McGraw-Hill, 2006). O’Kelly’s wife, Corinne, wrote the final chapter after his death.