This page is no longer being updated and remains online for informational and historical purposes only. The information is accurate as of the last page update.
For questions about page contents, contact the Communications Division.
Dan O’Neil ’06 was as well-rounded as a student can be.
Not only did he excel in the classroom and lab as a civil engineering major, he also loved the arts and sports. He was vice president of the Arts Society, a member of the Marquis Players acting group, lived for two years in the Arts Houses, and was always playing the guitar.
“Dan was a strong student. He came to Lafayette because of its engineering program, but also because of the liberal arts aspect,” says Mary J.S. Roth ’83, Simon Cameron Long Professor and head of civil and environmental engineering.
“He really enjoyed music and theater as well as engineering,” Roth says. “Dan was a student who took advantage of everything we have to offer. He was the kind of student we want here at Lafayette.”
After graduating last May with a B.S. in civil engineering, O’Neil enrolled in a master’s degree program in environmental engineering at Virginia Tech. He planned to work as a water resources engineer for a firm in the Boston area.
But those plans were snuffed out April 16, as O’Neil was one of 32 people killed in the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech.
A campus memorial service honoring the life of O’Neil will be held 4 p.m. Friday, May 4, in Colton Chapel.
“Some things simply cannot be made sense of, and in the face of such things we must just acknowledge how fragile human life is and how important being part of a larger community is to us all,” says President Daniel Weiss. “Dan O’Neil was a dear and integral member of our community. It is difficult to find words to express the deep sense of loss we all feel. The sympathy of all members of our College family is with this young man’s family in this tragic hour.
“All of us at Lafayette share in expressing our deepest sympathies to the people of Virginia Tech and Blacksburg. With the greatest sense of loss and sadness, our thoughts will be with you all in the coming days and weeks,” Weiss says.
“It’s difficult to find anything positive in this tragedy,” says David Brandes, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, with whom O’Neil did research as an EXCEL Scholar on the effects of urban development on flooding problems in the Lehigh Valley.
“Through my research with Dan in the summer of 2005 and continuing throughout his senior year, I learned that he was a special student and a special person – energetic, passionate, and full of humor. Not a typical civil engineer, he had interests in music, the arts, the outdoors, and of course, the Red Sox,” Brandes says. “Through our work he became interested in environmental engineering and hydrology as a career, and I helped him apply to Virginia Tech and other schools.”
Among other notable academic endeavors, O’Neil spent a semester in Brussels, Belgium, studying engineering, art history, languages, and culture, and collaborated in a senior design project focusing on storm water issues on campus.
“He loved music,” says Allison Blatt, operations director of the Williams Center for the Arts, where O’Neil served as an usher and box office helper, and adviser to the College’s Arts Society and Arts Houses. “That’s what he liked to do.
“He’d just show up at other Arts Houses with his guitar, sit down and play, then get up and leave,” Blatt says. “He was very passionate and enthusiastic about music – and about environmental engineering.”
A wake will be held Monday, April 23, from 4-8 p.m. at the Lincoln High School gymnasium, Lincoln, R.I. A funeral Mass is scheduled for Tuesday, April 24, at 10 a.m. at St. Jude’s Church, 301 Front St., Lincoln. Arrangements are in charge of Lincoln Funeral Home, 1501 Lonsdale Ave., Lincoln. Friends have organized a vigil to celebrate his life Saturday, April 21, from 7-11 p.m. at MacColl Field, Breakneck Hill Road, Lincoln.
Julia Pryde, daughter of Harry Pryde Jr. ’69, Among Victims at Virginia Tech