July 7, 2007 — The David O’Neill Memorial Fund has finally run out of money 14 years after O’Neill’s death, but islanders still remember him as a vibrant, creative man with a wicked sense of humor.
“My first impression of him was that he was incredibly talented and very funny,” said Trudy Tucker, who took turns acting and directing with O’Neill in several plays over the years. “He could basically out-Walter Matthau Walter Matthau.”
O’Neill died in 1993 at the age of 54, and friends staged a fund-raising cabaret and memorial service after his death to carry on his legacy of promoting arts in the territory. Over the years the money has gone toward "best of show" and "people's choice" awards at Tillet Art Fairs.
The final $700 of the fund has been split to provide scholarships for two young students participating in the Pistarckle Theater's youth summer program. Anisa Otto and Jaia Hendrickson, both of St. Thomas, each received $350 scholarships.
“I only worked with him once, but he was a wonderful director,” said Pistarckle founder Nikki Emerich. “Very giving. He was very generous with ideas, and very gentle. Many directors can be autocratic and horrible, but not David. He had a great sense of humor, and seemed like a very happy guy.”
V.I. Source Publisher Shaun A. Pennington served as one of the trustees of the O’Neill fund. He was an actor, graphic and fine artist, humorist and loving friend to many, she said.
“He had a legendary sense of humor and was a renowned storyteller, especially fond of telling stories about some of the famous and infamous characters he encountered in his days on and around Broadway,” Pennington said.
A native of New York City, O’Neill moved to St. Thomas in the early 1980s, staying for more than a decade until ill health forced him to leave. During the years he spent in the territory, O'Neill had a tremendous impact on the community, Pennington said. He owned an art gallery, worked for the V.I. Daily News as a graphic designer and later became art director and account executive for Austin Advertising.
But more than visual and commercial arts he loved theater, friends say. They describe him as a gifted stage performer who starred in such local productions as Joe Orton's "What the Butler Saw" and, Pennington said, “an uproariously funny version of ‘The Odd Couple’” at The Pointe dinner theater in Frenchtown.
“He played the Oscar role,” Tucker said. “We also did a wonderfully funny show called ‘Murder at the Howard Johnson.’ It was him and me and Jack Johnson, and that was great fun.”
Like O’Neill, Tucker arrived on St. Thomas in the early ’80s. Today she works as a buyer for the Local Color stores, does voice-over work for commercials and still performs on stage occasionally.
“He was in the first play I ever did in St. Thomas, which was close to 100 years ago now,” she said, laughing. “I learned a ton about comedic timing from him.”
Tucker described O’Neill as a “quintessential New Yorker.”
“He really knew how to tell an Algonquin Round Table-type story,” she said. “He was also an animal lover. He had a crazy Dalmatian, but David loved him. I always think you can tell what kind of person someone is by how they love animals.”
Tucker also credits O’Neill with an important life lesson: “He taught me something that I have quoted to countless people over the course of the past 25 years, which is that ‘No’ is a complete sentence. That's a real tough concept to grasp, but once you do, it's very liberating.”
The memorial fund for O’Neill has come full circle as it closes out, giving back to the theater scene on St. Thomas that he did so much to enliven and promote.
"It was time to bring the David O'Neill Memorial project to a close," Pennington said. "We have given many awards in David's name over the 14 years since his death."
Given O’Neill’s “great love of theater,” Pennington said, she and the other trustees — Brian Squires, current owner of Austin Advertising and Bob Austin, who David worked with for many years — decided it was fitting that the last of the fund be used “to foster young people who also had the love and drive to enter the world of theater.”
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