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Donald "Don" O'Neal '54 February 2, 2017 9:04 AM updated: February 2, 2017 9:08 AM

Turrentine Jackson Morrow obituary
2525 Central Expressway North
Allen, TX 75013
PH: (972) 562-2601
FAX: (972) 632-2800

Donald Glenn O'Neal
August 14, 1933 - January 16, 2017

Donald Glenn O’Neal, a Dallas area electronics entrepreneur from 1957 until 1983, died at home—in the arms of his family—on Monday, January 16, 2017, after a ten-month battle with gastric cancer. He was born in 1933 in Lampasas County, Texas.

The companies Don worked for included the Apparatus Division of Texas Instruments, International Data Systems, Corvus (a division of Mostek), Bramco , and Danray. Don was a founding member of four companies: Scientific Control (1963) , Applied Computer Products (1969), OEH (1973), and InteCom Inc (1979) At Scientific Control, Don designed a general purpose scientific computer that ran eight times faster than the competition. At InteCom, Don created the hardware architecture of the IBX, a large scale integrated voice and data switching system that utilized high speed fiber optic links. He was a 1954 graduate of Texas A&M in mechanical engineering. First Lieutenant O’Neal served as an electronics instructor for two years at Fort Eustis, Virginia.

During his thirty-three years of retirement, using his innovative design ability and management experience, Don volunteered on many projects which made life better for people. The cooking stove, known as The ONIL, designed for the rural Guatemalan women who had cooked on open fires on the floors of their homes, is the project which received the most international acclaim and for which he will be most remembered. His concepts such as mass production, safety, fuel efficiency, and chimneys have become standards for cooking stove design in developing communities around the world. Don’s dedication to meeting the needs of the widow lady, of a community without a school building, and of children who were burned evidenced his Christian commitment.

An appreciation of beauty coupled with a love of adventure marked Don’s life. His childhood interest in photography remained a passion throughout his life as did ballroom dancing with his wife. They heli-skied over a million vertical feet each in Canada and hiked mountain trails in the U.S. and Europe. They dove on the ship-wrecked Bounty off Pitcairn Island on their way to explore Easter Island. The beauty of mathematics always intrigued Don. Whatever he pursued he mastered.

Don is survived by his wife, Lois, of Farmersville; daughter Gayle and her husband Ryan Markey of Dallas; son Michael O’Neal of Dallas. Five grandchildren: Shannon and husband Ismael Pintor of Richardson, Lauren Allison of Austin, Thomas Allison of Austin; Lindsay and husband Case Morton of Birmingham, Alabama; Connor O’Neal of Dallas; two step-grandchildren: Cameron and Bethany Markey of McKinney, Ilana Markey of Dallas, and four great-grandchildren: Lillian O’Rourk, Liam O’Rourk, Kylie Markey, and Emory Markey. Don is preceded in death by his parents Arvel and Opal Jewel O’Neal, his brother Richard O’Neal, his sister Janice O’Neal, and his nephew Stephen Guthrie.

His memorial service will be at 2:00 p.m., Saturday, February 11, 2017, at the First United Methodist Church, 300 North Main, Farmersville, TX 75442, with a gathering afterwards in the Family Life Center adjacent to the church. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations for the cooking stove project can be made to HELPS International, 15301 Dallas Parkway Suite 200, Addison, TX 75001-9842.


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