Kirkman O'Neal

Kirkman O'Neal (born June 17, 1890 in Florence - died ) was the founder of O'Neal Steel.

O'Neal was the son of Governor Emmett O'Neal and grandson of Governor Edward O'Neal. He grew up in Florence where, at age six, he convinced his parents to give him a Daisy air rifle for Christmas. Two days later it fired accidently while he was loading it and a pellet lodged in his left eye, narrowly missing the optic nerve. He missed eight months of school, but had already been promoted to the second grade due to his reading skills.

At the suggestion of Congressman William Richardson, a friend of the family's, O'Neal entered the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. His roommate, Don Douglas, resigned from the academy to pursue aircraft design, later founding the Douglas Aircraft Company.

At graduation in 1913, O'Neal's former eye injury was discovered during a medical examination. The navy's surgeon general advised O'Neal that if it ever worsened he would have to resign without a pension. He chose to resign the service then and became his father's private secretary in Montgomery. Afterward he moved to Birmingham as his father's law clerk. They lived at the Ridgely Apartments before buying a house on 30th Street South. O'Neal joined the Birmingham Country Club and golfed most weekends.

After the United States entered World War I O'Neal applied for a naval commission. With two weeks before he had to report for New York he began a whirlwind romance with Elizabeth Paramore. After being introduced at a country club dance the couple had their first date at the Lyric Theatre. With his deployment delayed by an attack of appendicitis, O'Neal underwent an appendectomy and returned to Birmingham for 10-days medical leave before returning to New York and taking over the conversion of John Wannamaker's private yacht, The Druid, for military service. Two weeks before he set sail, O'Neal proposed to Elizabeth by telegram. The captain of the boat allowed him three days leave to return to Birmingham for a quick wedding at the home of Charles Terry on October 9. She accompanied him back to New York and stayed with him there and in Newport, Rhode Island until the Druid set sail for Europe on November 1, 1917.

References

• O'Neal, Kirkman (1974) O'Neal Steel: Memoirs of Kirkman O'Neal. Birmingham: private printing