To the uninitiated – and you’d have to be living under a rock to not know who he was – Richard J. O’Neill was the patriarch of the O’Neill-Moiso clan that developed much of South Orange County on 200,000 of acres of land he owned, including Ladera Ranch, Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, and everything in between. A rather large tract of his land was sold to the U.S. Government lo those many years ago for what became the Marine Corps Base at Pendleton. Today the O’Neill ranch, now known as Rancho Mission Viejo, consists of approximately 23,000 acres.

By all accounts, he was quite a colorful character. His love of life, family, good food and drink, "the Ranch," cattle ranching, sports, politics, horse racing, the restaurant/bar business, the stock market, people, friends, and "Good Times" is legendary in these parts and elsewhere.

A sixth generation Californian, Mr. O’Neill has owned, in partnership with others, some of southern California’s greatest bars and restaurants including The Harbor Inn in Avila Beach, The Glen in Beverly Glen, Los Angeles’ Blarney Castle, Bull ‘n Bush, H.M.S. Bounty, Black Forest, and Tiny Naylor’s. Still owned today by the family is the historic El Adobe de Capistrano and the Los Swallows Inn, both in San Juan Capistrano.

And you have to love a guy who became active in the Democratic Party supporting Harry Truman for President and lived long enough to see the election of President Barack Obama in Orange County, reputed to be the "most Republican county in the country. Over the decades he played a major role in local, state, and national politics.

But the thing I admire most about him is penchant for doing good. He supported many charities and community causes to numerous to list here. But two that bear mentioning are O’Neill Park, a multi-acre recreational area carved out of Ranch land, and the Donna O’Neill Land Conservancy, a 1,300-acre wilderness preserved from ranch lands that he dedicated to his mother.

His good works and exceptionally kind heart carried over to the communities he developed here in South Orange County, Ladera Ranch being the most recent, where he made sure the design and character of the communities were conducive to families and family life, giving exemplary meaning to the expression, "Doing well by doing good." He’ll be missed by his friends and family who knew him best, as well as people, like myself, who didn’t know him at all. He was a great American, and a great human being.

                                Jim Schmitt, Editor and Publisher