Arthur Daniel O'Neal Jr. (May 15, 1936 – October 10, 2017) was an American businessman. He chaired both the Washington State Transportation Commission and the (U.S.)

Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to eliminat ...

. He was on the board of directors at The Greenbrier Companies (GBX) until 2016.

Life

Arthur Daniel O'Neal Jr., was born to Arthur Daniel O'Neal Sr. and Louise Ragna O'Neal (née Nordahl) on May 15, 1936 in Bremerton, Washington. He went to

Bremerton High School Bremerton High School is four-year public secondary school in the port city of Bremerton, Washington, west across Puget Sound from Seattle, in the Bremerton School District. Between 1993 and 2007, Bremerton High School contained grades 10–12 ...

and studied Mathematics at Whitman College graduating in 1959. After graduating from the Naval Officer Candidate School (July 1959 - November 1959) in

Newport Newport most commonly refers to: *Newport, Wales *Newport, Rhode Island, US Newport or New Port may also refer to: Places Asia *Newport City, Metro Manila, a Philippine district in Pasay Europe Ireland *Newport, County Mayo, a town on the ...

, O'Neal reported to the , a World War II destroyer. He served as a technical officer on that destroyer from 1959 to 1961. From 1961 to 1963, he served on the , a destroyer escort. In 1965 he graduated from the

University of Washington Law School The University of Washington School of Law is the law school of the University of Washington, located on the northwest corner of the main campus in Seattle, Washington. The 2023 '' U.S. News & World Report'' law school rankings place Washingto ...

. In 1966, O'Neal came on as Staff Counsel for the US Senate Commerce Committee. He served as legal assistant for the long-serving

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

Warren G. Magnuson Warren Grant "Maggie" Magnuson (April 12, 1905May 20, 1989) was an American lawyer and politician who represented the state of Washington in Congress for 44 years, first as a Representative from 1937 to 1944, and then as a senator from 1944 to 1 ...

of Washington from 1967 to 1969. Until 1973, he was Counsel for the Surface Transportation Subcommittee at the US Senate. During this time, he was involved, among other things, in the legislation for the establishment of the passenger transport company Amtrak. In 1973 he joined the

, appointed by

Richard M. Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was t ...

. Subsequently, President Jimmy Carter re-appointed him and made him Chairman of the

, a position he held from April 5, 1977 to December 31, 1979. During this time, he was also a member of the Supervisory Board of the

United States Railway Association The United States Railway Association (USRA) was a government-owned corporation created by United States federal law that oversaw the creation of Conrail, a railroad corporation that would acquire and operate bankrupt and other failing freight rai ...

, the organizational mother of the freight company Conrail. During his term of office, he reformed Interstate Commerce Commission's internal organization and pushed ahead deregulation, especially in freight transport. He worked to reform railroad practices and protect the consumer. While on the commission he helped get the Motor Carrier Act of 1980 enacted. In 1980, Daniel O'Neal began his private sector law career at Houger, Garvey, Schubert, Adams and Barer. He came into contact with The Greenbrier Companies and took over a seat on the Supervisory Board of the subsidiary Gunderson Inc. (1985-2005). In 1984 he became Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Greenbrier Intermodal. He held this position until 1994, but he became inactive from 1989 onwards, since he bought a transportation logistics company this year after the death of the owner Fred H. Tolan and renamed the company Tolan O'Neal Transportation & Logistics Inc. In 1996, the company was fully taken over by Greenbrier and integrated into the newly founded company Greenbrier Logistics Inc. with O'Neal as chairman until 1997. In 1994, he was appointed to the Supervisory Board of The Greenbrier Companies. Daniel O'Neal served as Chairman of the Greenbrier Autostack Corporation from 1989 to 1996. From 1998 to 2011, he worked directly with Greenbrier as a consultant and lobbyist. Since then he has been working freelance in this field. He gave up his seat on the Supervisory Board at Greenbrier in January 2016. In 2003, he was appointed by Governor

Gary Locke Gary Faye Locke (born January 21, 1950) is an American politician and diplomat serving as the interim president of Bellevue College, the largest of the institutions that make up the Washington Community and Technical Colleges system. Locke serv ...

to the Washington State Transportation Commission. In 2008, he was elected Chairman. In 2007 Governor Christine Gregoire appointed him to the Puget Sound Leadership Council. and in 2009 she appointed him for another term with the Washington State Transportation Commission until 2015. He joined the board of directors for the Hood Canal Salmon Center in 2003. While on the board he worked to monitor and improve salmon habitat on Hood Canal. In 1961 he married Diane Gay Reedy. With her he has four children. His papers are variously in the collections of

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

and the Hoover Institution.

References

External links

Puget Sound Leadership Council

The Washington State Transportation Commission

Information About The Greenbrier Companies

{{DEFAULTSORT:ONeal, A. Daniel 1936 births 2017 deaths People from Bremerton, Washington Whitman College alumni University of Washington School of Law alumni Washington (state) lawyers 20th-century American lawyers