John O'Neill

I had Jack as an instructor back in the late 60's.. He changed my grade once that kept me off of probation. Thanks Jack! After that I did a tour during Vietnam, came back to Platteville, got a masters degree, taught HS Industrial Arts for 30 years and am now retired for 20. Where did the time go. Thanks again Jack for being a caring person! Paul Klassy

Dear Maureen and Family, Please accept my deepest condolences at the loss of your husband, father, grandfather, and brother. May he rest in peace. His sense of humor is one thing I will remember about him. My thoughts and prayers are with you. Love, Mari Vice

Jack was one of my 1st teachers at UWP. A few of the things he taught still stick with me, including that every decision is driven by money, hence him always drawing the $ on the board. The other was the best answer anyone could ever give, "It depends". Rest well, Prof O'Neill

I remember the first day Jack wrote his name on the board and crossed out "Dr." and "ONeill" and said call me "Jack". Then the cookout you all graciously held for us students at your "Four Corners of the Nation" house. Thank you. Jack was one of kind. He taught me the business side of broadcasting. The importance of networking and being known. He was also there 20+ years later when I back for an Alumni recognition. He came over with his smile and I recognized him immediately. He impacted so many people. I will never forget Jack!

Sad news hearing about Jack but I have a couple of things to share. Sorry for the long post. Both are from his TV125 class which was the first TV class most students took. First was his explanation of interlace scanning of an NTSC television. The classroom had a brick wall and Jack used the analogy of a little man behind the wall with a flashlight lighting up every odd row of bricks. When he got to the bottom he quickly zigzagged back to the top to do the even rows. Even non-tech people got the idea. The second was learning how to design a simple CATV system. Cable loss, insertion loss, tap loss, slope, etc. I’m sure most people thought it was a waste of time. But for me it helped win a multi-million dollar contract for an NFL stadium. A major nationwide consultant bid 3 packages and you were required to bid all three to be eligible. Since the consultant didn’t provide enough information to be able to correctly bid the CATV system I took exception and received a call from the consultant. He said I would be disqualified if I didn’t submit a bid for the CATV system. Generally it’s the kiss of death to challenge a consultant but with what I had learned from Jack’s 125 class I explained the issue, told him I knew how to design CATV systems since being a freshman in college and it was easy with the correct information. He listened and ended the call. I assumed I was eliminated but the next day an extension was issued with a revised spec and I received a call from the consultant apologizing for the release of a bad spec. I ended up winning this bid and future ones resulting in 10’s of millions of dollars of business. All because of Jack and his TV125 class. Thank you Jack! You were a teacher, colleague, mentor and friend! RIP.