Professor, Department of Mathematics
2009
Bio:
John D. O’Neill was born in Detroit in July 1929. He attended St. Mary’s grade school in Redford, Michigan and the University of Detroit High School. In 1947 he entered the Society of Jesus. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Latin and Greek from Loyola University in Chicago in 1951. From 1954 to 1957 Fr. O’Neill taught mathematics and religion at St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland (where he also coached football and basketball as well as serving as moderator for the art club and the C. Y. O.). He returned to Loyola University for an M. A. in philosophy and M. S. in mathematics in 1957 and received his Ph.L. in philosophy as well as his S. T. L. from West Baden College in Indiana that same year.
Fr. O’Neill joined the faculty of the University of Detroit in 1963 and divided his time between teaching and studying for his doctorate in mathematics, which he received from Wayne State University in 1967. Upon receipt of his Ph. D., Fr. O’Neill became a full-time instructor of mathematics at U. of D. Fr. O’Neill was promoted to assistant professor in 1967, associate professor in 1974, and became a full professor in 1997.
For over 45 years Fr. O’Neill taught at the University of Detroit and University of Detroit Mercy. During those years he helped to shape the curriculum of the Mathematics Department, he established himself as a world renowned researcher in mathematics, and for many of those years he served as the department’s liaison with the Mathematical Association of American.
Among his accomplishments, Fr. O’Neill authored some 40 published works in commutative algebra and was well known for research in direct product of infinite cyclic groups. He also published 13 abstracts for the American Mathematical Society, about 40 reviews for Mathematical Reviews (a publication of the American Mathematical Society), solutions to some 20 problems in Mathematics Magazine and American Mathematical Monthly, and had several letters published in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society.
In addition to his distinguished career as a mathematician, and his great interest in the classics, Fr. O’Neill was a long time member of Peace Action – one of the largest peace organizations in the country. He also served as Catholic Chaplain to the 5064 Garrison of the 5th Army, and, in the ‘80s, served as Confessor to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters at Marygrove College in Detroit.
After his priestly vocation and his dedication to mathematics, perhaps Fr. O’Neill’s greatest avocation was music. For 12 years he served as moderator of the University of Detroit Chorus and Singing Titans. In his years with this group they toured high schools throughout the Midwest (especially Jesuit high schools). For three years the Singing Titans were chosen by the U. S. Army to conduct summer tours of their bases in Europe and elsewhere --no other university was so honored. The U. of D. Chorus and Singing Titans even worked with such renowned professional talent as Duke Ellington, Al Hirt, and Mitch Miller.
Effective 8/17/2009 University of Detroit Mercy President Fr. Gerard Stockhausen, S.J., Ph.D. named Fr. John Dacey O’Neill Professor Emeritus.
Fr. O'Neill entered eternal life on October 28, 2012.