Obituary of CECIL O'NEAL

Frank O'Neal arrived among us on September 28, 1943, in Houston, Texas, where his father, Pat O'Neal, worked in the shipyards as a Chief Petty Officer, building ships for use during WW II. Frank left us to join the great unknown at St. John's Hospital in Tulsa, on July 30, 2013, after an extensive and debilitating series of illnesses. Frank and his parents, Pat and Frances O'Neal, both deceased, lived in several places prior to the war's end, including Casper, Wyoming, before coming home to Tulsa in 1946, where Frank grew up. He graduated from Hale High School in one of the early classes at the then new school. He then went to Graceland College in Lamoni, Iowa, on a basketball scholarship. Frank loved music, doing his artwork and, of course, sports. He attended a few other colleges and universities in Northeastern Oklahoma while searching for his life's course. He finally settled on the University of Tulsa where he majored in Education and minored in both social sciences and physical education, graduating in December 1971. During this time he met Peggy Ausmus, soon-to-be O'Neal in November 1971. They were the loves of each others' lives and shared so very many happy times with their son, Patrick Connor O'Neal, born, March 17, 1976. Frank taught and coached at several schools in the Tulsa Public School system for over 20 years. These schools included Byrd Jr. High, Carver Middle School, Foster Jr. High, and then Central High School where he both taught and coached wrestling and football. He also had the privilege of coaching and training at Cascia Hall in the areas of tennis and football, including participating in their success as football State Champions in 1990. He was so proud to be part of that experience. Due to Peggy's position with Telex Computer Products, the small O'Neal family left Tulsa and moved to the lovely suburb Raleigh, Cary, N.C. This is where he made a complete career change and began learning IT support with IBM. His interests in golf and fishing never abated and every free moment found him indulging either of those passions in Tulsa, N.C. and then in the Dallas/Ft Worth area where they were re-located once again in 1994. He continued his work in IT and enjoyed success with Overton Bank and Trust in Fort Worth and then with Citigroup before returning to the Tulsa area in 2001 to be closer to ailing family members. He continued his favorite past times as much as he could before his own health and mobility began to fail him around 2005. Once he could no longer walk and had was wheel chair dependent, his health issues began to compile and aggravate each other so much so that he spent all of 2013 in either the hospital or in skilled nursing facilities. It was from one of these that he was transported to St. John's in Tulsa to their ICU where he spent the last week of his life. Frank was a caring husband, loving father and an extremely intelligent, ethical man. He held everyone to the highest standards, the very same ones he expected of himself. The single greatest disappoint of his life was that he was unable to serve in the armed forces of the U.S. But he was a patriot nonetheless and many is the time he would shed a tear during the playing of the National Anthem. He and Peggy lived their lives as Humanists and tried to make the most of each moment by setting expectations that contributed to improving the human condition and advancing human potential in a religion-free environment. Frank was truly "a good man" in every sense of the word, and even though he may have been over-eager at times to share his knowledge of a great many topics, he could always be trusted with the most sensitive of secrets and to provide the best advice he knew how. He is survived by his wife, Peggy, son Patrick and wife Sara, as well as two grandchildren, Alexandria Salvo and Christian Salvo. Frank was well and truly loved and will be sorely missed.