Bill passed away peacefully on October 24th. He was born April 8, 1931 at the Seaside Hospital in Long Beach to Laurene Hutton and Jack O'Neill. He has called Long Beach his home for over 80 years. He attended all local schools - Edison Elementary School, Washington Junior High and Poly High School, where he was senior class president and where he met his future wife, Beverly Lewis. They both graduated from Long Beach City College and Cal State Long Beach (Long Beach State) where he was the third Associated Study Body President. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California (USC) in 1960 where his dissertation on Jean Paul Sartre (existentialism), was chosen as the outstanding dissertation of the year. He is survived by his beloved wife, Beverly; his daughter, Teresa, for whom he felt great pride; his outstanding grandson, Nolan; and nieces and nephews. While he was studying for his Ph.D. at USC he taught at Hamilton Junior High and CSULB. He was a professor at USC for thirty-two years. He was well known in the academic world where he wrote 8 professional text books which included, "Selected Educational Heresies;" "Educational Ideologies;" "Rethinking Education," "Philosphy East and West," "Readin - Writin and Rafferty" (Max Rafferty was the California Superintendent of Education), his study of Ayn Rand in "With Charity Toward None" and "Education Under Distress - Brainwashing" - 1970. He loved words and their meanings. His last co-authored book on Abraham Maslow titles "Philosophical Psychology" was published this September with the kind help of his niece, Dale O'Neill. He was also President of the National American Education Studies, focused on the social and philosophical foundations of education. He taught graduate classes for USC overseas programs on bases throughout the world.

Published in the Long Beach Press-Telegram on October 31, 2012