Richard J. O’Neill, heir to one of the largest land holdings in Orange County, died early Saturday morning at the age of 85.
O’Neill was chairman of Rancho Mission Viejo LLC, which owns about 23,000 acres in South County as well as office buildings, stores and restaurants.
His company is the second largest land owner here after Irvine Company.
O’Neill died of natural causes at the family’s home in Rancho Mission Viejo, east of San Juan Capistrano, according to a spokeswoman.
O’Neill suffered from Parkinson’s disease in recent years, according to a report from the Orange County Register.
His grandfather, Irish immigrant Richard O’Neill Sr., acquired 230,000 acres from Aliso Creek to Oceanside in 1881.
The elder O’Neill, who acquired the land with partner James Flood, made a fortune as owner of several meat markets near the docks of San Francisco.
In 1942, the Marine Corps absorbed the entire San Diego portion to expand Camp Pendleton. The Marines took 17-miles of coastline, the only stretch of the ranch that reached the Pacific Ocean.
Around that time, the recently deceased Richard “Dick” O’Neill graduated from Beverly Hills High School and joined the Navy.
He told the Business Journal in a 2004 interview that he thought he had signed up for the Naval Reserve but found himself on a ship manning a machine gun during World War II.
O’Neill, an ardent Democrat, got his first taste of politics in the Navy, registering sailors to vote.
He would spend a lifetime in politics, rising to the Democratic Party’s chairmanship of California in 1978. He also headed the party in Southern California and said he helped it gain ground in OC.
After the Navy, O’Neill invested in restaurants and bars. The family still has an interest in some eateries, including El Adobe, Mission Promenade and Swallows Inn in San Juan Capistrano.
O’Neill’s wife Donna O’Neill lost a six-month battle to cancer in 2002 after 50 years of marriage. She helped start the Rancho Mission Land Conservancy, a 1,250-acre wilderness preserve.
Dick O’Neill had a huge impact on the county, from the creation of the O’Neill Regional Park in Trabuco Canyon to the development of Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, Las Flores and, most recently, Ladera Ranch.
His nephew, Anthony “Tony” Moiso, now runs the company. He’s overseeing Rancho Mission Viejo’s plans to develop 23,000 acres of South County with about 14,000 homes and about 5 million square feet of shops and offices in the county’s southern foothills near Mission Viejo.
The plan calls for setting aside 15,000 acres as permanent open space, including land for cattle ranching and farming.
