Deliveryman helped many on life's route

In a later journal entry Brian wrote about the difficulty he had getting up in the morning — and the invention it inspired.

"I contrived a contraption that would wind a string up on a spool which in turn pulled a knife switch that would ring a bell until I got up to turn it off," he wrote. "The alarm clock was the power to set this in motion."

Practice made perfect, and over time, as Kelly recalled, his father needed no such contraptions.

"The truck (with the newspapers) would come into Vernal about 3 a.m. And when it came, it would wake Dad up," Kelly said. "And if for some reason it didn't come, it would wake him up anyway. He would know that truck was late. It was just his whole focus."

Every one of Kelly's brothers and sisters delivered newspapers in Vernal — and almost every one of Brian O'Neil's grandkids have delivered newspapers.

All over northeastern Utah, you'll find men, many now in their 40s, 50s and 60s, who delivered papers for Brian O'Neil when they were teenagers. Many were there to pay their respects at last Saturday's funeral.

But the times, they are changing. Most newspapers are delivered now by adults in automobiles — and many more are delivered through cyberspace on a newfangled invention called the Internet.

No delivery boys — or men — required.

It makes the passing of good men the likes of C. Brian O'Neil all the more nostalgic. As Arlen Peacock, an executive of the Newspaper Agency Corporation who was O'Neil's supervisor back in the day, observed, "He helped a lot of young men become good citizens."

Starting with himself.

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Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.