John
J. O’Neil, IEEE Senior Member, Founder and a Past President
of its Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Society, died Saturday,
July 7, at home in Manalapan, New Jersey. Born in Detroit, Michigan,
he graduated from Laurence Institute of Technology, worked at
the Ford Motor Company and moved to New Jersey after World War
II. John joined the Civil Service as an Electrical Engineer working
at the US Army Signal Corps, Engineering Laboratories, at Fort
Monmouth, New Jersey.
Assigned to the Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) Suppression
Group, he later became its Chief for the next 30 years. John made
many significant contributions to EMC and to the EMC Society;
namely, ignition suppression component designs, New Jersey EMC
Chapter Chairman several times, and IEEE International Symposium
on EMC Chairman. John was a great leader of the 12 engineers of
the RFI Group that included me. He was my first EMC mentor for
seven years and throughout my EMC career provided me wise counsel.
At our recent golden jubilee celebration during the 2007 IEEE
International Symposium on EMC in Honolulu, Hawaii, John’s
photograph, biography and accomplishments were posted in the EMC
Museum. Many persons asked about John and those who knew John
missed him, his wife Dora and his great Irish smile. EMC
