Daniel O'Neil

“He was a normal kid … he was a good musician and a good student … he always wanted to excel … he really persevered when he liked something,” said Bill O’Neil, Daniel O’Neil’s father.

O’Neil had two loving parents, his sister Erin O’Neil, and a great group of friends from high school in Lincoln, Rhode Island. His father was always a role model for him.

“He really looked up to his dad, he did a lot of things his dad did, like go to Europe,” said high school friend, Amanda Burbank.

Daniel went to high school at Lincoln High. It was there that he was involved with his high school drama program in what was called the “Variety Show” with many of his friends.

His tenth grade English teacher, Lise Robidox, said that O’Neil “was a delight to have as a student.”
Robidox remembered how he was always appropriately funny in class and made his peers laugh.

“He was full of high spirits … he sparkled.” Robidox said.

After high school he went on to Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., where he received his degree in Civil Engineering. While at Lafayette, O’Neil was a part of the art society and was in a student-run theater group called the Marquee Players.

Daniel studied abroad in Belgium his junior year at Lafayette. While his host family was never able to teach him French; Burbank, was always willing to help him translate since she took French in high school.

Throughout his life Daniel was also committed to his music. Bill O’Neil knew his son’s passion for the liberal arts and science.

“He just loved playing music, he wanted to be an engineer,” said Bill O’Neil.

One of O’Neil’s musical inspirations was the Beatles.

“Dan was obsessed with the Beatles, all of us were,” Burbank said.

O’Neil posted his music on his MySpace page and also on his website, www.residenthippy.com.

On his MySpace page O’Neil wrote, “So these are some songs that I’ve written over the last couple of years, and recorded through the microphone that came free with my computer. To be completely honest, they don’t sound that bad, considering.”

The last time Burbank saw O’Neil was when she visited Virginia Tech in February. They worked on some covers together and continued to work on music even when the visit was over. They would send one another files over the computer and piece together their music.

Burbank said Daniel had already purchased his ticket for Bonaroo this summer to see Damien Rice, one of the musicians she and O’Neil had covered.

While recollecting memories about his son, Bill O’Neil said his most cherished memories were “times that we spent down at the ocean.”
The family would go on a vacation with a large group of friends ever since O’Neil was young.

“Those were really wonderful days,” Bill O’Neil said.

Amanda Burbank and Mike Truppi from Lincoln, R.I. had many fond memories with Daniel as well.

Their large groups of friends were so connected, they even went so far as to make baseball T-shirts for the entire ‘team.’ His nickname on the back of his shirt was ‘Danatee.’ Burbank explained that at that time O’Neil was charmed by manatees and would have many jokes regarding the animal. His position on the pseudo baseball team was ‘resident hippy’ in homage of his webpage.

In reminiscing all the good times he spent hanging out with his good friend, Truppi thought of one evening in particular.

“One night we played cards from four in the afternoon until seven in the morning,” he said.

“Most of the time we would just hang out with no particular goal in mind,” Truppi said.

There may have been no particular goal, but there certainly was a lot of coffee for all of those late nights. The entire group loved going to Dunkin’ Doughnuts.

Truppi thought about how O’Neil would call him on many occasions to discuss a book he just read or just because he was thinking of him.

“You could talk to him about anything and it was always an engaging … conversation”
Truppi said that one of O’Neil’s favorite writers was “Fight Club” author Chuck Palahniuck.

O’Neil came to Tech as a graduate student in pursuit of a master’s degree in environmental engineering. Truppi explained that while he was at Tech he would occasionally make the commute to Roanoke to buy a coffee from Dunkin’ Doughnuts for a taste of home.

Burbank and Truppi both knew O’Neil was committed to having a good time and to loving his friends and family.

“He always made everything really fun,” Burbank said.

Even though Daniel may have left,  his spirit still lives on.

“For somebody who believes in souls he’s not really gone … we may not see him but we can feel him if we reach out,” Robidox said.