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President's Message |
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As Normal School alums, Thelma and Bernard O’Neill have witnessed the growth of the campus, from the several hundred students who attended the Normal School when they did to the thousands who attend CSU, Chico today. For most of the twentieth century, they lived on Rio Chico Way and watched the many changes in their neighborhood. Their house, located across from Big Chico Creek, was originally surrounded by other family homes. Chico Normal School was a short walk to the east. As the campus grew, demands for buildings and housing increased. Rio Chico Way was an ideal site for students, and, as families moved away, students moved in. Today, their house is the only one in the neighborhood that is not a student rental. The O’Neills decided it would be fitting to donate their house to the university. “After all, the college has been good to us,” says Thelma. “The college is growing, and it’s growing that way.” Their donation of the house is a gift of a retained life estate. Under this arrangement, the O’Neills deeded the house to the University Foundation, but the foundation will not take physical possession until after the O’Neills pass away. They also receive an immediate charitable deduction for their gift. When the university takes possession of the property, it will be sold and the net proceeds will be used to establish the Bernard H. and Thelma A.M. O’Neill Scholarship Endowment. Income from the endowment will be used in support of the President’s Scholars awards, academic and performance awards, and need-based scholarships. The O’Neills have devoted a large part of their lives to education. Bernard started his teaching career in Sacramento. After a couple of years there, the superintendent of Oroville schools hired him to teach in Oroville. “After two years, he put me at Eastside as principal, and I think he forgot me,” says Bernard. “He left me there for twenty-nine years.” Thelma was the principal-teacher at Linden School for more than thirty years. She recalls how, in 1937, Chico got almost a foot of snow. The school’s flat-roofed building was not designed to bear such a heavy snow load and was damaged. “The water went right onto the ceiling and then onto the floor of the classroom,” she says. “There was a lot of damage done.” The melting snow combined with upstream runoff caused substantial flooding around their home, too. The O’Neills put on their hip boots, retrieved their car before the water rose too high to drive, and managed to drive it to the Hotel Oaks garage on Second Street. “That water came down and there was a lot of breakage—limbs and trash—and where did it go? It came right down and backed up to the railroad trestle, and it made a perfect dam,” says Thelma. People who were stranded had to be rescued with boats. Not all of their snow adventures had such dire consequences. The O’Neills met at Chico Normal School’s summer school at the foot of Mt. Shasta. While there, they climbed the mountain with about twenty students and a professor as a guide. The first day they climbed to the Horse Camp stone hut, where they spent the night. Thelma remembers: “They bedded you down on the floor or anywhere they had room for you. Anyway, nobody slept.” The next day, about half the students completed the climb to the top of the mountain. Bernard and Thelma were among those who signed their names in the registry at the top of Mt. Shasta. The O’Neills’ gift to the University Foundation will help others reach their goals. To learn more about how you can establish a named endowment in support of scholarships or other campus programs, please contact the Office of University Development at 530-898-5297.
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