Obituary for Moncure (Monty) Camper O’Neal, Jr.

Post date: Mar 13, 2014 9:2:51 PM

Monty O'Neal, March 8, 2014

Our dear friend and business partner, Monty O'Neal, passed away….. We will so miss his kind and funny spirit, zest for the deal, and intellectual contribution to our angle network and our regional investment bank and consulting business, Browning Mecke and O'Neal. His obituary follows…….

M. Camper O’Neal, Jr., known to his friends, family, and business associates as Monty, died while jogging in San Diego, California on March 8, 2014. He was 66 years old. Born in Birmingham, Alabama on May 5, 1947, the son of Moncure Camper and Louise Clarke O’Neal, who predeceased him, Monty did his undergraduate studies at Auburn University, graduating with a degree in journalism. He went on to obtain his Masters in International Management from the American Graduate School of International Management at its Thunderbird campus in Glendale, Arizona, then his MBA from Trinity College in Washington, DC. Monty completed his military duty in the Alabama Air National Guard, a division of the U. S. Air Force, receiving his honorable discharge as a staff sergeant. On May 2, 1987, just three days before his fortieth birthday, he married Anne Kennedy, whose parents lived in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Monty had a long and distinguished career in banking, corporate finance, and venture capital, beginning with a job at AmSouth Bank in Birmingham, Alabama as a loan and operations officer in the early 1970s. The Export-Import Bank of the United States in Washington, DC then selected him as one of twelve commercial bankers in the U.S. to serve in the government’s fellowship program in international finance. Starting in 1976 in the nation’s capital, he went on to work as corporate lending officer at Union First Bank, which became First American Bank of Washington, then at the American Security Bank. The early 1980s allowed him to transition to the field of finance at American Export Group International Services (AEGIS), where he held the position of vice president of finance. Monty founded and then managed his own small investment banking and international trading firm, O’Neal House Merchant Bankers. Work at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) had him monitoring loans to international projects worldwide before he became vice president of Haifinance Corporation in 1989, where he co-managed its large private equity fund. During this period, President Reagan’s Commission on Industrial Competitiveness tapped him as an adjunct member. He and his wife, Anne, moved to Sarasota, Florida in 1996, and Monty worked there as a senior financial adviser for Merrill Lynch. When they later relocated to Fairhope, Alabama in 2004, where they resided until 2013, he joined as a partner in an investment banking and business development services firm known as Browning, Mecke, and O’Neal, based in Mobile, Alabama. Monty’s early career involved a two-year period of teaching as a visiting lecturer at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. His publications include one authored work, An Introduction to Commercial Loan Documentation and one edited work, Analyzing Financial Statements. He has served as a director on the boards of numerous corporations.

Active in his local communities, Monty sat on the board of directors of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority in Fairfax, Virginia, was a member of the Great Falls Citizens Association, and generously gave his time and talent as financial chairman of the Saint Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Great Falls (VA), a job he resumed at Saint Martha’s Church upon his move to Sarasota, Florida. In an effort to build a Catholic school in the area, Monty was named chairman of the Catholic Charities Foundation of West Florida. In Fairhope, Alabama, he volunteered for the Meals on Wheels program and at The Haven, an animal shelter, and served as president of the homeowners’ association at Grand Manor, where he lived in the Point Clear area of Fairhope.

Golfing, fishing, and dogs were among Monty’s many interests. From his childhood days on, Monty chose to support the Boston Red Sox in baseball, and long after his college days Monty remained a loyal fan of Auburn Tiger football. Monty’s business, of course, took him to many parts of the world, but he had a natural interest in other cultures and traveled also for pleasure in Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, and Australia.

Monty is survived by his wife, Anne; his brother Bert (Dolly) of Birmingham, Alabama and their three children: Bert, Jr. (Susanne and their two daughters) of Atlanta, Georgia, Camper (Mary Chollet and their daughter) of Birmingham, and Amy (Johnathon Stevens) of Birmingham; his brother John (Nancy) of Clinton, New York and their two children: Kate of Rome, New York, and Vaughan of Boston, Massachusetts; and his sister, Louise (Steve Tucker), of Birmingham, and their five children: Matt (Dalana and their two children) of Carbon Hill, Alabama, Mandy (Keith Miller and their three children) of Birmingham, Neal of New York City, and Steve Alan and Marie, both from Birmingham. In the family of his wife, Anne, Monty is survived by her brother, Michael Kennedy (Colleen), of Spokane, Washington, and their three children: Erin, Bridget (Timothy McNamara and their son) of Edmond, Oklahoma, and Conor of Portland, Oregon; her sister, Christine (William Hamersky), of Sebastopol, California, and their son, Padraic, of San Bruno, California. Monty has nine surviving grandnieces and grandnephews: Addie Gray and Louise O’Neal; Chollet O’Neal; Mary Virginia, Anne Louise, and Tucker Miller; Libby and Piper Tucker; and Eason McNamara.

There will be a celebration of life and memorial mass on Monday, March 17 at Saint Francis Xavier Church in Birmingham, Alabama at 10:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to either The Haven (an animal shelter), 559 S. Section Street, Fairhope, AL 36532; or the Scholarship Fund in honor of Moncure Camper O’Neal, a fund established by Monty in honor of his father at the University of Alabama School of Law (Office of Advancement, Box 870382, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487).