Barrett O’Neill, a UCLA professor emeritus of mathematics, died on June 16 of pneumonia and complications of old age. The Pacific Palisades resident is survived by his wife of 60 years, Hope, three children Eric, Jean and husband Miquel Godinez and Evelyn, and two grandchildren, Ceri and Remi. O’Neill was born in Washington, D.C. on March 26, 1924. He was the son of an Air Force brigadier general and attended school in 17 towns before graduating from high school in Paxton, Illinois. After a year at Manlius Military School in New York, O’Neill attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology for three years before joining the U.S. Army in 1945 as a lieutenant. He was assigned to the Panama Canal as part of the armed forces that were put in that area to thwart any last-minute attempts to blow up that vital waterway. After three years in the army, he returned to MIT and received his bachelor’s degree in 1948. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in algebraic topology, the study of the algebra of curves and surfaces. Afterwards, he switched to the study of differential geometry. He met his wife the day she went to register at Radcliffe College. When he learned her name was Hope Franklin, he asked if her father was a professor of mathematics at MIT. She said, ‘Yes.’ The two were married June 7, 1951. She had finished her degree in physics, he had finished his thesis, so that summer they drove across the country, sleeping alongside the road and eating sandwiches on their way to Los Angeles, so that O’Neill could take a job at UCLA. His starting annual salary as an instructor was $3,900. O’Neill was stricken with polio in July of 1954 and the condition became so serious he was put in an iron lung. After recovering, he had suffered some paralysis in his legs, which resulted his teaching from a wheelchair for the next 37 years. The family moved to Pacific Palisades in the summer of 1971 and lived in the same house for the past 40 years. Their youngest daughter, Evelyn, graduated from Palisades High School. O’Neill authored ‘Elementary Differential Geometry’ in 1966, which was about the geometry of curves and surfaces. After retiring from UCLA in 1991, he wrote a revised version (published in 2006), which maintained the accessibility of text of the first version, while providing an introduction to the use of computers. O’Neill’s ‘Semi-Riemannian Geometry With Applications to Relativity’ was published in 1983. One user wrote, ‘O’Neill’s wonderful book provides the reader with a mathematically rigorous, thorough introduction to both Riemannian and semi-Riemannian geometry, showing how they are similar and pointing out clearly where they differ. The last part of the book turns to general relativity by offering lucid introductions to the Robertson-Walker cosmological models (Big Bang singularities), the Schwarzschild model for a single non-rotating star (including black holes), and a brief introduction to Penrose-Hawking causality theory.’ His last book, ‘The Geometry of Kerr Black Holes,’ published in 1995, offered the first book-length treatment of Kerr space-time written in a modern mathematical style, stressing both coordinate-free and coordinate-based computations. In addition to revising and writing books after retirement, O’Neill would also respond to mathematical queries from students world-wide. The interment of ashes will take place on August 21 in the Northeast Cemetery in Pawlet, Vermont. A memorial service will be held on September 15; interested parties can check the Math Department Web site for details.
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