Almerin C. O'Hara

Later civilian career After retiring as adjutant general, O'Hara was appointed Commissioner of the New York State Office of General Services, succeeding Cortlandt V. R. Schuyler. As commissioner, one of O'Hara's top priorities was overseeing completion of the Empire State Plaza state office complex. During the Attica Prison riot in September 1971, Governor Nelson Rockefeller dispatched O'Hara to the scene as his personal representative. In February 1974, Governor Malcolm Wilson named O'Hara as director of the New York State Emergency Fuel Office, an agency created to coordinate the state response to the energy crisis that had begun in 1973.

In 1975, Albany County adopted a county executive position to lead its government. In that year's election for the first county executive, whose term would start on January 1, 1976, O'Hara, then a resident of Albany, won the Republican nomination and faced Democratic nominee James J. Coyne Jr., who was then serving as county clerk, and Liberal nominee Theresa Cooke, county treasurer and a critic of the county and city Democratic machine run by Daniel P. O'Connell. He later resided at a nursing home in Norway, Maine.

Awards O'Hara's awards and decorations included:

Army Distinguished Service Medal Silver Star Second Lieutenant (National Guard), June 1, 1934 First Lieutenant (Army), October 15, 1940 Lieutenant Colonel (Army), January 30, 1945 Major General (National Guard), November 19, 1957