By Marian Howard and Shannon O’Neal

The expression “the glue that holds everything together” is the perfect description of what Roy O’Neal has meant to the Bayou Chapter of the Ozark Society for over 3 decades. Roy has served 3 terms as Chairman – in 1995 and 1996 and again in 2018 when no one else volunteered to step up and serve.  He has been a board member for over 10 years because he said that was the only time he’d get to see his Arkansas friends!  He has been working with the Bayou Byline newsletter for almost 30 years, been the contact person for the annual Athens-Big Fork Trail Maintenance and has organized the local Duck Pond Cleanup a couple of times each year.  Not to mention his invaluable assistance in transporting several hundred pounds of crawfish to the Annual BCOS Crawfish Boil and making sure the burners are functioning and providing expertise in taste testing.  Roy can always be counted on to help out whenever and wherever the need arises.

     Since he has a need to constantly do something, beginning with a morning crossword and moving on from there, Roy gets a lot done. He’s often not working on anything he personally needs, but doing something for someone – just about anyone – else. He’s brought that energy and dedication to the organization for decades now and shows no sign of slowing down. (Well, maybe slowing down just a bit, but Roy is nonetheless still always full speed ahead.)

     He embodies “Conservation, Recreation, Education.” He’s made a second career of introducing people to the outdoors, helping preserve it, and getting out and enjoying it. He has held just about every position in the chapter from President to peon, some more than once, and a few at the society level. (He’d want to make sure we clarify this was not at a “high society” level.) He currently serves as BCOS newsletter Publisher and Conservation Chair.

     BCOS is a perfect fit for Roy and he helped shape the club. His lifelong love of the outdoors, volunteerism, service, work and stewardship ethics, and gregarious goodwill are part of the BCOS DNA. Good people doing good work and fun things… outside. What made him a great patriarch for BCOS is an interesting story and, like all of Roy’s stories, takes a good while to tell.

    Roy was born in 1938 and raised in Delhi. Not to be confused with that humdrum capital of India, New Delhi, Roy’s childhood home was a truly exotic place in northeast Louisiana with woods, farms, bayous, lakes, sloughs, fields, and adventures to spare. He grew up running only slightly wild around his hometown. He claims that as a child he didn’t wear shoes May through August – except on Sundays; which is as good evidence as any that his loving parents were able to keep him mostly out of trouble. His formative years clearly laid the foundation for his future “outdoorsiness” and love of nature.     

     Young Roy’s family took a summer vacation by car from Louisiana across the west, and up to the Grand Canyon, Zion and Yellowstone National Parks. No air conditioning in those days, at least not in their car; Roy’s father would buy blocks of ice and keep them in a tub on the floor board to try to take the edge off the heat. Roy learned that dedication and maybe a little suffering made most times outdoors better. He learned to love people and the pleasure of good company from his large extended family and his friends, church, and high school clubs and sports, becoming as good a friend as one could wish to have. He learned the pleasure and value of hard work, whether it was the brains or brawn type, through chores and jobs along the way. 

At LSU he added the Tigers to his family – along with his new fraternity brothers, who were slightly less effective at keeping him out of trouble than his sister Jo Nell had been back in Delhi. He learned more about camaraderie and teamwork in the National Guard, as well as about potato peeling and other new skills he didn’t realize he needed to cultivate. He learned to fly and for years enjoyed seeing the world from above in small aircraft when it was still unusual, eventually volunteering (of course) and flying search and rescue with the Civil Air Patrol. Roy always enjoyed an adventure of some kind large or small and still does.

     In his business career Roy was a good friend as well, making certain his people and customers were taken care of as best he could. He volunteered at his sons’ schools and coached their teams. All this time he enjoyed everything the outdoors offered, from hunting to hiking to water skiing. Family trips to Arkansas and Colorado are legendary.

     Along the way Roy has paddled the Grand Canyon, backpacked the Rockies, trekked the Nepali Himalaya, hiked in the Alps and Wales and on Italy’s Mt. Aetna. He’s hunted not only in the Sportsman’s Paradise but all over Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Idaho. He recently summited Louisiana’s Driskill Mountain, not only the state’s high point but also the only state high point conveniently close to both catfish and crawfish restaurants.

     Roy continues to lead the way in community service through the Ozark Society. In addition to Athens-Big Fork Trail Maintenance and the Duck Pond Cleanup, ongoing projects he regularly participates in are OWL Center Trail Maintenance, Red River National Wildlife Refuge Trail Maintenance, supplying kayaks for local kayak clinics, and providing safety boats for local triathlons.  If someone has a tornado disrupt their lives, Roy is there to help.  If a flood messes up someone’s house, Roy is there to help!  If Hurricane Katrina ruins someone’s house, Roy is there to help clean up!

     The Ozark Society needs more people like Roy O’Neal!  The WORLD needs more people like Roy O’Neal!