John David Patrick O’Neil was the VP of our department at C&NW. He is the only boss I will mention by last name, because he was the best boss anyone could ever have. (Sorry to all you other bosses.)

Everyone called him only Mr. O’Neil, not by his direction, but because he deserved that much respect and no one even thought of calling him anything else.

A short time ago “empowering” employees was the latest business fad. Well Mr. O’Neil was way ahead of his time in that regard. When his staff made a decision it stuck and no call to him would change it. If he did not agree, you would hear about it later (I was on the receiving end of that a couple of times.) But it really instilled confidence in ourselves.

Once, I had some chest pains. When Mr. O’Neil heard why I was out sick, he had me go to the company doctor (on site) for tests on the company. It turned out that it was not heart related, but a common injury to the muscle in the sternum caused by racket sports.