James E. O'Neill Jr. was a Democratic

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

politician and teacher who served as a member of that state's

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

from 1967 through 1994. A high school teacher and elementary school principal in Hemlock, O'Neill was a tireless advocate for schools and education, a respected source of information on school finance, and a key contributor to the landmark changes made by Proposal A. O'Neill was also a strong supporter of

Saginaw Valley State University Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU) is a public university in University Center, Michigan, United States, in Saginaw County. It was founded in 1963 as Saginaw Valley College. It is located on in Saginaw County's Kochville Township, appr ...

, and the arena in the Ryder Center on the campus was named in his honor in 1989. Following his retirement from the Legislature, O'Neill was appointed to the Board of State Canvassers. He died of complications from open-heart surgery on December 31, 2002, aged 73.

References

1929 births 2002 deaths Democratic Party members of the Michigan House of Representatives Politicians from Saginaw, Michigan American school administrators Central Michigan University alumni University of Michigan alumni 20th-century American educators Schoolteachers from Michigan 20th-century members of the Michigan Legislature {{Michigan-MIRepresentative-stub