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Robert O'Neal Obituary

Robert Munger O'Neal, 85, died May 27, 2008, at his home in Stone County. He was born in Wiggins, one of three sons and two daughters of Dr. Charles Ernest and Myra Mae Munger O'Neal. Robert O'Neal graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1943. He attended the University of Tennessee College of Medicine under the Army Specialized Training Program and received his M.D. in 1945.
Dr. O'Neal interned at Gorgas Hospital in the Canal Zone; he returned to Memphis to the Baptist Hospital in 1947 and that year married Mildred Estelle Morris, a Tennessean. He was a tuberculosis patient at Mississippi State Sanatorium in Magee, and, after recovering, remained as a resident in chest disease until 1952. He completed his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1954.
Robert O'Neal was an instructor in Pathology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis from 1954-1956, was the pathologist for Greenwood Hospital in Mississippi for two years, and then resumed his academic career at Washington University, as Assistant and later Associate Professor of Pathology. During the years in St. Louis he participated in early research on cholesterol and specialized in atherosclerosis. In 1961 he became Chairman of the Department of Pathology at Baylor Medical School in Houston. Dr. O'Neal was an author or co-author of over 100 research papers, contributed to several medical publications as an editor, and served on the National Institutes of Health, the National Heart Institute and the National Board of Medical Examiners. From 1969-1973, he was Director of the Bender Hygienic Laboratory, the nation's first independent medical laboratory, in Albany, New York, where he was also Professor of Pathology at Albany Medical College. Later in his career, he was Head of Pathology at the University of Oklahoma Colleges of Medicine and Dentistry and Chairman of Pathology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where he retired as Professor Emeritus in 1988. Among other professional memberships, he was an Emeritus Fellow of the College of American Pathologists.
He is survived by his wife and three of his four children, Julia Ann, Margaret Alice, and John Munger O'Neal. A son, Clarence Ernest, predeceased him. Dr. O'Neal had four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Published by Clarion Ledger on May 29, 2008.

Memories and Condolences
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3 Entries

Cynthia Ramseur

May 30, 2008

I did not have the pleasure of knowing Dr. O'Neal; but I have had the joy of getting to know his daughter Julia. I can only imagine that Julia's parents are equally gifted people - intelligent, funny, caring and passionate. The world is a better place because of Dr. O'Neal and his family. To Dr. O'Neal's family, may you find strength, comfort and joy as you celebrate your father's long and productive life.

Sincerely, Cynthia Ramseur

Kathryn Lewis

May 29, 2008

I did not have the privilege of meeting Dr. O'Neal--I do have the privilege of knowing and working with Julia, and I am sure she is her father's daughter-a wonderful, caring, concerned citizen of Stone County. My thoughts are with the family. Kathryn Lewis

Fair Goodale

May 29, 2008

Bob and I were residents in Pathology at the MGH for several years in the early '50s, and have kept in touch ever since. He was one of my oldest and dearest friends and I will desperately miss him and his sense of humor. Mary Margaret will miss him badly too and we both send our dearest love to Mildred.

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