Nancy O'Neill; owned Indians team
Hyfler/Rosner
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Richard M. Peery
Plain Dealer Reporter
Hunting Valley- Nancy O'Neill, a philanthropist who helped
keep the Indians baseball team in Cleveland in the 1980s,
died Sunday at her home in Hunting Valley. She was 83.
Her husband, F.J. "Steve" O'Neill, was the principal owner
of the money-losing Indians when he died in 1983. His widow,
despite getting lucrative offers, refused to sell to anyone
who would move the team from the city. She sold the team
three years later, to Richard and David Jacobs.
O'Neill was a volunteer and contributor to many charities,
including Vocational Guidance and Rehabilitation Services,
where the Nancy O'Neill Atrium and Plaza was installed. She
also was an original benefactor and longtime supporter of
the Malachi House for destitute terminally ill patients.
She served on the board of the Cleveland Institute of Art
and was the primary donor when the Vatican art collection
was exhibited at the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1998. She
established the Nancy O'Neill Schol arship Fund at the
Cleveland Play House.
In spite of the key role she played in many institutions,
O'Neill's name was seldom in the news.
"She was so modest. She wanted others to take the credit,"
said her daughter, Nancy-Clay Marsteller of Shaker Heights.
"She used to say, 'I have drunk from wells I didn't dig. I
have been warmed by fires I did not light.' When she was
trying to decide whether to help a person or a cause, she
would ask herself, 'What would Steve want?' "
She was born Nancy McVey in Cleveland. She attended Shaker
Heights High School and Sweet Briar College, then graduated
from Western Reserve University. In 1944, she married Clay
Marsteller, a railroad corporate lawyer. He died in 1968.
She went to work as the head librarian for the Federal
Reserve Bank of Cleveland in 1964. She left the job when she
married Steve O'Neill 10 years later.
O'Neill received an honorary doctorate from John Carroll
University, where she made major building contributions
through the F.J. O'Neill Charitable Trust. Similar support
was given to the bioethics program at the Cleveland Clinic,
the cardiovascular program at St. Vincent Charity Hospital
and Hanna Perkins School. She endowed chairs at Notre Dame
College and University School.
O'Neill is survived by her daughter, two grandchildren and
two brothers.
Services will be at 4 p.m. Saturday at St. Paul's Episcopal
Church, 2747 Fairmount Blvd., Cleveland Heights.
Memorial donations may be made to the Nancy M. O'Neill
Scholarship Fund of the Cleveland Play House, 8500 Euclid
Ave., Cleveland 44106.
Arrangements are by the Brown-Forward Funeral Service of
Shaker Heights.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
dpe...@plaind.com, 216-999-4807