One of the sons of the founder of KGFX radio has died (Dec. 29, 2022) at the age of 98, following a short illness.
Richard “Dick” Dana McNeil was born in Pierre on Sept. 11, 1924, to Dana and Ida McNeil. Dana was a railroad conductor and Ida was a pioneer radio broadcaster who owned and operated radio station KGFX for many years after Dana’s death in 1936.
Dick graduated from Pierre High School, where he was a noted varsity basketball player, and from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946. Dick’s brother Bob graduated from the U.S. Military Academy and was a career Army officer prior to his death in 1997.
From 1946 to 1956 Dick was a U.S. Navy officer on active duty and served on a destroyer in the Korean War. From 1958 until his retirement in 1995, he was a member of the faculty in the Electrical Engineering Department at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology.
Dick married Jean Killeen of Scranton, PA, in 1951 in Washington, D.C. They had five children and were together 51 years until her death in 2002. Daughters Mary Geraldine and Agnes Jean Marie died in infancy. Dick and Jean’s surviving children are Dick McNeil Jr. (wife Debby) of Minneapolis, Marie Hicks (husband Terry) of Rapid City and Elizabeth McNeil of Weatherford, TX. Dick is also survived by nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. He was also preceded in death by his granddaughter Rachel V. McNeil.
A funeral service for Richard “Dick” Dana McNeil will be held tomorrow at 10:30am at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church (910 Sioux San Drive) in Rapid City. Arrangements are under the direction of the Osheim & Schmidt Funeral Home.
Photo courtesy of Osheim & Schmidt Funeral Home.
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