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Vince Neil in ONA scheduling
with Richard Toyoda and John Pardales

Electra L-188C N182H

DC-7B N953P Oakland AP 1967

DC-8 Zurich Switzerland July 1975
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VINCENT D NEIL
February 1, 1936 - January 19, 2013
Eulogy to the memory of Vincent Neil by
by Bill Stanton
I'm very sorry to report that my former boss
at ONA and long-time very good friend,
Vince Neil, passed away peacefully in his
sleep on January 19, 2013, after a long
struggle with cancer. He would have been
77 on February 1st. For the last fourteen
years, Vince was retired and lived in
Melbourne, Florida. He is survived by
three sons, a daughter, many grandchildren,
and his last love, Christiane, also of
Melbourne and Switzerland. At his request,
there will be no funeral. Any and all further
arrangements will be private.
I knew Vince well since about 1974 in Long Beach,
New York, when he was a vice president with ONA
at JFK. A mutual friend introduced us at a
restaurant. After a short chat, he hired me on
the spot to work in his office--Aircraft
Scheduling. Vince was born in Cape Breton,
Nova Scotia, and grew up there and later near
Montreal. As a teenager, his first job was as
an aircraft parts tracker for the Royal Canadian
Air Force near Montreal. After high school, he
moved to Illinois and promptly joined the U.S. Air
Force with duty at McChord AFB near Tacoma,
Washington--and later on Guam, as an air-crewman
on B-50's (a later version of the B-29). While
still in the USAF, he was sworn in as a U.S.
Citizen in Washington, D.C.
After discharge, Vince became a ferry pilot of
new Cessna's for a short time. Soon, he ended
up in Washington D.C. where he quickly became
the principal liaison to the government of
all the U.S. charter airlines at the time,
including ONA. He also had considerable
advisory and practical input in the flight
scheduling of all those aircraft, during which
he developed the unique "Flow Sheet" later used
at ONA by all departments. Vince knew
everybody in the business, including Bill Bailey,
who had become president of ONA. I'm pretty sure
it was Bailey who, recognizing young talent,
took Vince on as a V.P. at ONA.
Sometime early on, Vince became a world-class
aircraft modeler, both static and RC
(remote controlled). Throughout his life,
Vince was considered by many to be an expert
in WWII--especially military air operations.
He had a finely detailed knowledge of the strategy
and tactics of every air battle in every theater
of operations. Vince knew everything worth
knowing about every type aircraft involved and
ALL notable pilots, both Allied and Axis.
He was one of the most brilliant men I've ever
known--though he could be a bit cantankerous
from time to time. That was a trait not
altogether lost on his co-workers, but of which
he seemed wryly proud at the time--though much
later--in his golden years, he would ruefully
admit it.
Just before deregulation--which soon proved to
be doom for the charter airlines--Vince resigned
from ONA and formed his own airline consultancy
out in the sticks of Missouri. While I was
still with ONA, I once flew (free, of course)
out there to see him. We took a canoe trip
down a swift-running river which turned out to
be hilarious...details shall remain withheld.
But the chaos of de-reg soon made his consulting
effort impractical and he returned to Long Beach,
New York where we became neighbors again--and
he became a model. Vince had some success at
modeling--most notably as the man in the Grecian
Formula print and TV ads. He also appeared in
an off-broadway play, The Caine Mutiny, as the
captain of the court martial of the scurrilous
Captain Queeg. He also appeared as an extra in
a Woody Allen movie.
Then Vince and another model formed a limousine
service in New York City which was highly
successful--especially when they sold the
business. At that point, Vince semi-retired
and moved out to Tucson, Arizona near his
oldest son, who is head of the Arizona State
Police Academy. Mostly out of curiosity,
Vince successfully completed the entire
physically rigorous academy course, and took a
job in law enforcement as a deputy. He worked
mostly in the office directing the admittance
and discharge of prisoners. Vince had a lot
of fun with that because he got to play with a
lot of different weapons and some rather
diabolical restraining devices. Right up his
alley! Finally, in 1999, he fully retired and
bought a new home in Melbourne, Florida where
he met the ever delightful Christiane, a
Swiss national, an excellent watercolor artist,
and an experienced world-traveler. She still
had (and has) her place in Switzerland, and
they became snow-birds between Melbourne and
Switzerland.
After I had retired to south Florida, I accepted
an always open invitation to visit them in
Switzerland. I spent almost four weeks over
there; traveling with them all over Switzerland
and the Alps. We went by train sometimes,
but most frequently in Christiane's car.
That was an adventure in itself, as Christiane
drives those narrow, curvy, Swiss roads like
she's in a NASCAR race. Vince and I missed
a lot of "vistas" (Christiane's favorite word)
as we were constantly diving for the floorboards
in terror. I never knew a Peugeot could go
that fast...or handle that well.
Since about 1985, Vince and I were good
motorcycle ridin' buddies...back in New York and
more recently in Florida. Our longest ride
together was from Florida to Cape Breton. It was
probably the first time he'd been back there
since childhood. It turned out that only one
cousin was still living there. But the ride
back--through northern Maine, New Hampshire,
Vermont, Lake Ticonderoga, Binghamton, NY,
Harrisburg, PA, and the Skyline Drive in
Virginia--was spectacular.
I'm gonna miss my friend.

DC-8-55 Travis AFB, CA 1969
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ONA CREW EXTEND HEARTFELT
CONDOLENCES TO THE FAMILY
Christiane and Vince

Vince and Bill at Kitty Hawk NC 1986
Arriving in Long Beach from NC 1986
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