WTMJ-TV News Operations Manager Sean O’Flaherty died Friday after 53 years at the Milwaukee station. He was 74.
While in college at UW-Madison, O’Flaherty reported on the 1970 Sterling Hall bombing for WTMJ-TV and joined the station full-time when he graduated in 1971. Over the following five decades, O’Flaherty held virtually every role in the newsroom from producer to editor to photojournalist to News Operations Manager, a title he held for the past several decades.
Of the more than 5,000 people employed by The E.W. Scripps Company, O’Flaherty stood alone as the longest-tenured Scripps employee.
In 2021, then-Mayor Tom Barrett proclaimed June 5 “Sean O’Flaherty Day” throughout the City of Milwaukee to mark O’Flaherty’s 50th work anniversary at WTMJ-TV. In the proclamation, Mayor Barrett described O’Flaherty as a “trailblazer within the journalism community” and as someone who has “earned the enduring praise, respect and gratitude of his colleagues for his exemplary leadership and devotion to the community.”
According to his obituary, veteran journalists liked O’Flaherty as one of their own, but so did colleagues who weren’t even born when he reached the quarter century mark at TMJ4.
A Celebration of Life will be held on Wednesday, July 31, at Feerick Funeral Home (2025 E. Capitol Dr. Shorewood, WI 53211) at 11 a.m. with a reception to follow. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions in Sean’s name can be made to the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Foundation. Please choose the “scholarship fund” option.
