Richard 'Art' O’Neal

Richard (Art) O'Neal

Richard (Art) O’Neal of Olympia, Washington, died on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. He was 83 years old.

Art was born in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1942 to Richard Bonham O’Neal and Reba (Luce) O’Neal. He attended the University of Tennessee on a football scholarship, playing center for the team. There he studied Engineering and Urban Planning earning a Bachelor’s Degree and trained to be a U.S. Army officer as part of ROTC. It was at UT where he met his future wife, Susan. The two were married in 1966 in Clarksville, Tennessee.

After a brief time in Fort Benning, Georgia, 18 months in Germany, and a year in Vietnam, he attended the University of Washington receiving his Masters in Urban Planning.

Art then returned to Tennessee with Susan working as the Principal Planner for Nashville’s Metropolitan Planning Commission where their first daughter, Jennifer Elizabeth, was born. He received a job offer from Thurston Regional Planning Council, and Art and Susan moved to Olympia, Washington, in September 1973 living in a home on 17th Avenue in the South Capitol neighborhood where their second daughter, Sarah Louise, was born.

Art worked as the Executive Director of the Thurston Regional Planning Council from 1973 until he took a job as the City of Olympia’s Public Works Director in 1985. He held the position of Director of Public Works until he retired from the city in 1999.

Once retired from the City of Olympia, Art worked as a consultant to a variety of municipalities, as well as public and private boards, across the Pacific Northwest and Northern California.

He survived an aortic dissection in 2010, which inspired him to complete at least six round-trip cross-country journeys in his camper van, towing a bass boat and stopping to fish with friends, family and guides in favorite spots in Canada and the Great Lakes, sometimes driving as far as Maine. Art loved Chinese food and cooked many meals for family and friends. He was an inveterate fan of football and women’s basketball.

Art is survived by his wife of 59 years, Susan Wyatt O’Neal; his sister, Janis Holcombe of College Station, Texas; his daughters Sarah Louise O’Neal of Olympia and Jennifer O’Neal Lozito of South Orange, New Jersey his son-in-law Joe Lozito; and his grandsons, Joseph Arthur Lozito and William O’Neal Lozito, to whom he has passed along his love of fishing, football, and Chinese cooking.

Art’s life will be celebrated at a memorial event in the spring; details to follow. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to Morningside, YWCA, or Planned Parenthood.