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Dr. Mike E. O'Neal Esq. - Board Member
A native of Hugo and Antlers, Oklahoma, and an alumnus of Oklahoma Christian, Dr. O'Neal became the President of Oklahoma Christian University on June 15, 2002, after a 26-year career with Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.
Dr. O'Neal attended Oklahoma Christian from 1964-1966 before completing his degree in accounting and business at Harding University in 1968. He earned his juris doctorate from Stanford University in 1974.
Dr. O'Neal has extensive experience in Christian higher education, having served Pepperdine University from 1976 to 2002 as general counsel and vice president for finance and administration before being named vice chancellor in 1991. Over the years with Pepperdine, his office was instrumental in raising in excess of $250 million.
Dr. O'Neal served on the faculty of Harding University from 1974-1976 as an assistant professor of business administration. A CPA, he has also worked with the accounting firms of Coopers & Lybrand; Touche, Ross & Co; and Ernst & Ernst. He scored 1st in Oklahoma and 17th in the nation on the CPA exam.
Dr. O'Neal has been a member of the California and Arkansas Bar Associations, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the Oklahoma and Arkansas Boards of Public Accountancy. He served on the board of directors of California Christian School, was of counsel to the African Christian Hospitals Foundation and has been a frequent seminar speaker on the topics of fund-raising and estate planning.
Since coming to Oklahoma, he has served on the Board of the Last Frontier Council of the Boy Scouts and on the Board of Advisers of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the downtown Rotary Club 29.
Born February 6, 1946, Dr. O'Neal is the son of the late Foy E. and Margie O'Neal of Paris, Texas. He is a lifelong member of the Church of Christ and has served as an elder, Bible class teacher, song leader, preacher, vocational missionary, ministry leader and building committee chair. He received the Christian Service Award from the San Diego Christian Foundation and has served as president of the Church of Christ Foundation and as a director of the Los Angeles Church Property Corporation.
Dr. O'Neal served his country in the armed services, receiving the Bronze Star for Meritorious Service in Vietnam as an officer in the Navy. He also received Navy and Army Letters of Commendation.
Dr. O'Neal and Nancy, his wife of 32 years, have two children. Michael, an OC alumnus and Pepperdine law graduate, practices law in Oklahoma City where he lives with his wife Rebecca, also an alumna and a registered nurse at Oklahoma Heart Hospital, and the O'Neal's first grandchild, William Henry O'Neal. Amanda is a senior majoring in business at Oklahoma Christian University.
