John Donald McNeil

October 29, 1919 - April 10, 2021 A life well lived - UCLA Professor of Education and World War Two Veteran.John was born October 29, 1919 at home in Cherokee, Iowa, the youngest of four children (sisters Helen and Maxine died in childhood before he was born). His father, George Warren McNeil, held various jobs: farmer, railroad engineer, and shoe store owner. John's mother, Elizabeth McCulloch McNeil, emigrated from Ross-shire, Scotland and was a journalist, author, and hole-in-one golfer.During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the family migrated to San Diego. A San Diego Union newspaper route and selling magazines for the Curtis Publishing Company were high school activities before John graduated from San Diego High School in 1937. He continued his education to earn a B.A .and Master's degrees at San Diego State College. After teaching junior high and high school English in Kearney Mesa/San Diego, John enrolled at Columbia University and earned a doctorate in curriculum and instruction.Arriving at UCLA (Moore Hall) in 1956 to lead the teacher education program, John introduced the requirement that student teachers gain experience teaching at inner city schools. His innovative thinking projected a philosophy of interest based education for an uncertain world. As an expert in the teaching of reading, John published more than two hundred experimental studies and general articles in education journals. The eighth edition of his Contemporary Curriculum: In Thought and Action was published in 2014. International Development: Challenge and Controversy was published in 2018. In August 2015, he presented in Spanish at the Latin America Reading Conference - UCLA. Over the course of his career, he received Honorary Degrees from Universidad de Monterrey, Inter American University Puerto Rico, and East China Normal School Shanghai. His curriculum publications have been translated into Arabic, Chinese and Korean. In the last decade of his 65 year career at UCLA, he taught a Fiat Lux Honors Course on entrepreneurial philanthropy with his last class meeting being March 31, 2021.For the past 30 years, John worked as a consultant for Juarez and Associates. He authored education policy and evaluation reports for USAID Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico and Jamaica. Before his long and illustrious career as a UCLA professor, John earned four battle stars in the course of his military career. During World War II, at the age of 24, John was the Naval Gunnery Officer on the USS Achernar and was responsible for the storage of ammunition used in the Normandy Amphibious Landing. With Generals Bradley and Hodges onboard, the USS Achernar was the command ship for the Normandy Invasion. Following the Normandy Invasion, John was made the Executive Officer of the USS Achernar. The ship continued its war efforts by supporting the Allied forces in southern France. Later, in April 1945, the Achernar experienced heavy fire by Kamikaze pilots during the invasion of Okinawa, Japan. After active service in the Korean War, John remained a member of the US Naval Reserve until 1977 and earned the rank of US Navy Commander. The City of Los Angeles honored John's World War ll service with a City Hall ceremony and proclamation on Veterans Day, 2019.A lifelong proponent of physical exercise, John was on the UCLA track at 5:30 AM daily followed by calisthenics in the UCLA Men's Gymnasium (the same place where he enlisted in the US Navy in 1940). He enjoyed the sport and camaraderie of badminton at the gym until he was in his 80s. John will be remembered: by his students for his engaging questions and humanitarian focus (International Bill of Human Rights), by his colleagues for his humbleness and quest to improve education and the world, by his friends for his desire to learn from them, by his family for his intellectual high bar and his life stories that he shared with incredible detail - and by his rideshare drivers and many others for his genuine interest in their life stories. John combined wisdom with cutting edge insight. Anyone leaving a conversation with him was left mentally invigorated. He liked nothing better than helping a student, colleague, friend, or family member find a needed resource. His avid reading of numerous newspapers and journals gave him a wealth of resources. John learned and taught well until his final days.When recently asked what he was most proud of, John replied, "It's more like things I'm grateful for. It's been the most wonderful experience. Even things that were disheartening- looking back on them, they were really something. People contributed so much to my life, every one of them. It's been a wonderful voyage. It's people. It's opportunities. It's imagination. It's getting into heaven ahead of time."John is survived by his children, Heather Larkin (Terry), Lisbeth Ceaser, Catherine McNeil (Mylan Jaixen) and Juan McNeil; grandchildren, Donald Larkin (Maria), Kyle Larkin (Laural), Cerena Ceaser (Josep Palmer); and great grandsons Craig and Ryan Larkin. John was predeceased by his wife of 71 years, Mary Ellen (2016) and his sister Margaret Cotton (1990).Contributions in John's memory may be made to the John McNeil Fund, established by Bill and Sue Roen, to provide program support for UCLA School of Education and Information Studies: McNeil/giving.ucla.eduCelebration of Life October, 2021. Contact information: mcneil810@yahoo.com.