Vale John O’Neill

Respec­ted retired sea­farer John O’Neill passed away on 22 Janu­ary 2024 after a short ill­ness.

John is known as a great uni­on­ist, rep­res­ent­ing the Seamen’s Uni­on, Sea­farers Uni­on, and Mari­time Uni­on as Duned­in Vice Pres­id­ent 1969, Lyt­telton Sec­ret­ary 1971, Auck­land Seago­ing Coun­cil­lor 1974, Reliev­ing Assist­ant Sec­ret­ary 1975, Auck­land Seago­ing Coun­cil­lor 1978, Auck­land Assist­ant Sec­ret­ary 1982–1984, Nation­al Coun­cil­lor & Nation­al Vice Pres­id­ent to 2002, Auck­land Pres­id­ent & Vice Pres­id­ent 2004 to 2012.

John also loved his time at sea where his lead­er­ship qual­it­ies were evid­ent lead­ing as ships Bosun, ships uni­on del­eg­ate, seaman­ship skills, nego­ti­ation skills and ment­or­ing the youth of the industry.

Our deep­est con­dol­ences to John’s wife Julie and whanau at their loss.

(Thanks to Loc­al 13 Pres­id­ent Hec­tor Thorpe for obit­u­ary and pic­ture)