O’Neill, 71, remembered fondly by his many admirers, colleagues
By: Marjorie Censer
Joseph O’Neill, the Princeton Borough mayor remembered as an optimistic and scholarly leader, died at home Friday after a long struggle with leukemia. He was 71.
Local leaders spoke warmly of Mayor O’Neill, calling him a gentleman and praising the knowledge and intellect he brought to his municipal work. Though he had tired more easily in the past year as he battled leukemia, his colleagues said the mayor did not want his illness to slow down the municipal decision-making process.
"He never wanted his illness to get in the way," Princeton Township Mayor Phyllis Marchand said.
Mayor O’Neill’s son, Michael O’Neill, said his father’s death did not come as a surprise. Mayor O’Neill had been receiving red blood-cell transfusions every few months, but he began to need these transfusions more and more frequently. After receiving a red blood-cell transfusion and a platelet transfusion Wednesday, Mayor O’Neill decided Thursday to stop the transfusions and to enter hospice care.
Friday morning, he died at 10:30 a.m. His family wife Anne, son Michael, daughter Chanel, Chanel’s partner, Patricia Ramos, and their two children, Finnegan and Ellie had planned to celebrate Mayor O’Neill’s 72nd birthday today.
In addition to his wife, children and grandchildren, he is survived by a brother, Jim O’Neill.
Michael O’Neill said that though his father was not able to accomplish everything he wanted in public office specifically, the sale of the University Medical Center at Princeton site his role as mayor helped keep him alive longer.
"This was a nice way for him to go out," Michael O’Neill said. "I think he was having the time of his life."
Mayor O’Neill grew up in Greenbelt, Md., and entered the Society of Jesus at age 17. He became an ordained priest in Chile. While a priest, he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from Fordham University in New York City. From 1962 to 1965, he studied theology at the Colegio Maximo in Buenos Aires, and he was the first Jesuit priest to attend Princeton Theological Seminary when he enrolled in 1967.
In 1970, Mayor O’Neill and Anne married, and in 1971, he left the seminary without finishing his thesis, and he left the priesthood. Chanel was born in 1971, and Michael was born in 1974.
He worked at the New Jersey Department of Higher Education and was founding president of Hudson County Community College in Jersey City.
In 1976, he founded a consulting firm for small private colleges. His last job before retiring was working as a principal research scientist at Educational Testing Service in Lawrence, a position he held from 1988 to 1994.
His municipal service began long before retirement he was appointed to the Regional Planning Board of Princeton in 1986. Michael O’Neill said Barbara Boggs Sigmund, who was mayor at the time, wanted to appoint his mother to the board, but she was busy. Instead, Mayor O’Neill jumped at the opportunity. He served on the board until 2001, when he joined the Borough Council. He was elected mayor in 2004.
His predecessor, former Mayor Marvin Reed, said he encouraged Mayor O’Neill to join the council and was impressed by how he ran meetings.
"He certainly rose to the occasion," Mr. Reed said.
Council members praised Mayor O’Neill’s attention to the greater context of issues and his scholarly approach to them. He sometimes authored position papers on issues.
"I’ll miss his intellect, his wisdom, his ability to really focus on what’s important," Councilman Andrew Koontz said. "He was a former academic, and he really brought those talents to the table."
Michael O’Neill described his father as an avid reader, noting that even as he grew weaker and stopped reading books, he read numerous newspapers.
The mayor’s family has asked that donations be made to the Princeton Public Library Foundation in his memory, and the foundation has established the Joseph P. O’Neill Memorial Fund. Mayor O’Neill served as a library trustee.
"He was really always thinking of the library," said library Board of Trustees President Nancy Russell. "We are very moved," she said, by his designation of the library for donations.
He was not a career politician, local officials noted, and Mayor Marchand said his honesty led him astray when he first began as mayor. She recalled appearing on a live segment of the local TV program "Meet the Mayor" with Mayor O’Neill when he began to speak about information that was not ready to be announced to the general public.
"I was trying to sort of kick him," Mayor Marchand remembered. "He was such an honest and open man."
Mayor O’Neill stood out as different from many politicians.
"In a world of partisan politics, a person such as Mayor O’Neill, who cared so deeply about people, was refreshing," said Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes in a statement. "He will be missed."
Council members Peggy Karcher and Roger Martindell said Mayor O’Neill was always a gentleman.
"He was kind and courteous," Mr. Martindell said.
Michael O’Neill, too, said his father was a charming man, able to set people at ease.
Mayor O’Neill always remained positive, officials noted. Councilman David Goldfarb praised his optimism and "his belief that everybody has the best motives in the political process."
Township Committeeman Lance Liverman said Mayor O’Neill helped the borough and Princeton Township work together.
"Joe was almost the glue he always held everything together," Mr. Liverman said. "He believed in trying to make things work."
Borough officials also recalled fondly the mayor’s sense of humor, which his son described as slightly "off-color." When a friend of Mayor O’Neill asked him to give the eulogy at his funeral, Mayor O’Neill chose a poem by W.H. Auden: "As the poets have mournfully sung, Death takes the innocent young, The rolling-in-money, The screamingly-funny, And those who are very well hung."
Borough Clerk Lea Quinty said the Democratic Municipal Committee has 15 days to submit three names to fill the mayor’s seat. The committee can nominate current council members. The council then has 15 days to appoint one of the three choices. The appointed mayor will serve until the next general election in November 2006 at which point there will be an election for the year remaining in the mayor’s unexpired term.
Mayor O’Neill’s funeral is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Thursday at the Princeton University Chapel. Michael O’Neill said former New York Times reporter and family friend Gene Maeroff will speak at the service. The Kimble Funeral Home of Princeton is handling arrangements. The mayor will be cremated, and the family has not yet decided on the disposition of the ashes.
Borough offices will be closed from 2 to 5 p.m. Thursday.