Information Made Easy... Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.
L.E. O’Neil & Associates is established as a mechanical design engineering company in Dayton, Ohio, with five employees by Larry E. O’Neil, PE . Larry had been an aerospace engineer at Douglas Aircraft and then at Wright Field.
Technical manual preparation added to services.
Company incorporates as L. E. O’Neil & Associates, Inc. (ONEIL). LEO the Lion becomes logo.
Larry O’Neil (left), pictured with three of the five founders, establishes the National Aviation Hall of Fame and obtains a federal charter from U.S. Congress.
Oshkosh Truck calls ONEIL to do provisioning and technical manuals as suggested by United States Air Force Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex. (Image courtesy of Tim Wright)
An Illustromat analog computer for technical art is installed, and ONEIL becomes one of the first businesses in Ohio to use computerized graphics.
Buying IBM magnetic tape systems marks the company’s first digital storage of text.
Company sales reach $500,000.
Typesetting department composes ONEIL tech manuals and provides typesetting services to many organizations including producing a four volume secret study on the feasibility of a nuclear-powered aircraft for Wright Patterson Air Force Base - Air Force Institute of Technology.
The company’s first business computer, the BASIC-4, is installed for accounting and automation of parts manual preparation. It has 3 drives, for a total of 30 megabytes.
Wayne Yoder (Right | President 1977-1988) purchases the company, with John Staten (Left | President 1988 -2006) buying a share. (Center: Founder Larry O'Neil | President 1947-1977)
Company sales top $1,000,000.
Company name changed to drop “L.E.” Larry O’Neil keeps engineering design and training/video production, starting a separate company called “LEO Systems.” The company logo is modified.
ONEIL named Company of the Year by Kettering Community Corporation for commercial growth of Kettering.
A Quadex phototypesetter updates the company’s capabilities to state-of-the-art.
Company receives first order in excess of $1 million (Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT) for U.S. Army via Oshkosh Truck (now Oshkosh Defense).
Company grows to 50 employees and moves to larger facility at 224 N. St. Clair Street in downtown Dayton.
Company sales top $2 million
Company sales exceed $4 million with HEMTT program.
Art department upgrades from analog computer to new digital TriVector computer.
ONEIL receives the first of several International Technical Art Competition awards from the Society for Technical Communication (STC). ONEIL art was placed on the cover of STC International Journal for two consecutive issues.
Wayne Yoder, president and primary owner, passes away. John Staten, part owner and 22-year employee, purchases the company, which has 53 employees.
First branch office is established in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, upon winning Palletized Load System (PLS) phase 1 subcontract from Oshkosh Truck (now Oshkosh Defense).
Larry E. O'Neil, founder of ONEIL, passes away.
The company symbol of Leo the Lion evolves to its third iteration.
Company outgrows facilities and moves to larger offices at 425 N. Findlay St. in Dayton, Ohio, just as the Cold War ends with the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Company receives the City of Dayton’s Small Business of the Year award.
Company sales exceed $8 million.
Astronaut Neil Armstrong performed the honorary enshrinement of Larry E. O'Neil (posthumously) into the National Aviation Hall of Fame for his work in honoring aviation pioneers.
Aiding underprivileged local families becomes a company tradition through Helping Hands committee.
Company grows to more than 100 employees.
John Staten is named “Executive of the Year” at the Dayton Business Reporter Small Business Awards banquet.
ONEIL adds Continuous Acquisition and Life Cycle Support (CALS), electronic catalogs, online help, and Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals (IETMs) to service offerings.
Dayton Area Early Childhood Coalition honors company as a Family-Friendly organization based on exemplary employee programs and activities like the Adopt-a-Family Christmas project. U.S. First Lady Hillary Clinton presents award to Bob Miller.
Electronic documents prepared by ONEIL are used in a U. S. Navy electronic technical manual.
CALS/Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML)data for the Milstar satellite are delivered to the U.S. Air Force.
Company delivers first SGML-based CD-ROM IETM. Customer: American Railway Engineering Association (AREA). It is the 100th year this 3,000-page engineering design handbook was published. (ONEIL did not author.)
Company sales exceed $9 million.
Company acquires LEO Systems (Larry O’Neil’s design engineering and training company). Occasional orders for equipment that Larry designed are still fulfilled by subcontracting the fabrication.
Company celebrates 50th anniversary; 160 employees; sales exceed $10 million.
NACCO (Now Hyster Yale Group) selects ONEIL over EDS and 18 other companies. ONEIL pays for modernization as part of a contract for a minimum commitment of 5 years. Portland, Oregon staff joins ONEIL expanding footprint to the West Coast.
Company acquires assets and employees of The Oxford Associates, a training company.
Employment reaches 200, with 15 in the Information Engineering group.
Developed a Class-5 IETM and Computer-Based Training on Satellite Ground Terminals for Harris Corp (now L3Harris) and U.S. Army.
Terrorist attacks in New York and on the Pentagon result in a significant reduction in ONEIL commercial aerospace business and create a surge in Department of Defense work.
Company acquires assets and employees of AVTECH, an e-Learning company.
Company sales exceed $17 million.
Over Christmas break, the company moved to larger and more modern facilities at 495 Byers Road, Miamisburg, Ohio.
Company opens office in San Diego, California to support Electronic Maintenance System (EMS) contract.
U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) awards EMS-Next Generation (EMS-NG) contract to ONEIL.
ONEIL’s Quality Management System (QMS) is certified ISO 9001 compliant.
The company symbol of Leo the Lion evolves to it's fourth iteration.
John Staten and Bob Heilman (CEO 2001-2016) work out agreement for management team and Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) to gradually buy company from John, at no cost to employees. ESOP receives 1.25 percent of stock.
For the first time, 25 percent of employees work at offices other than at headquarters.
ONEIL is the first U.S. company to develop and deliver an S1000D IETP (IETM) to the UK MOD (Oshkosh Wheeled Tanker Program).
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Developed maintenance manual for entire Eclipse business jet aircraft.
Company establishes an outside governing board of directors.
Bob Heilman appeared on the CNBC show World Business Review, hosted by retired General Norman Schwarzkopf.
Company starts authoring HEMTT Class–5 IETM using EMS-NG, developed by ONEIL for the U.S. Army.
Company started selling ONeTOOL with 24/7 support to warfighters.
Company sales exceed $24 million.
Company significantly expanded technology tools in areas including graphics, diagnostics, and XML-based Content Management Environments.
EMS-NG becoming widely used for many U.S. Army vehicles.
Added a 4,500 sq. ft. high–bay workshop for hands–on product support development on military and commercial equipment as well as hosting U.S. Army and USMC validations, verifications, and logistics demonstrations.
ESOP increases ownership to 25 percent of company. With additional investment by management team, we became an Employee-Owned Company. ONEIL Board of Directors was formed.
Installed a backup generator to keep computers running if city power is lost. ONEIL computers now contain 30 terabytes of data.
Despite The Great Recession, company sales hit $30 million.
Employment exceeds 300; sales exceed $33 million.
U.S. Army awards company sole source follow-on contract for EMS-NG with a ceiling of $30 million.
Company makes Inc. magazine’s top 5,000 list.
To accommodate next round of growth, company leases 10,000 square feet of space on Lyons Road.
Company wins subcontract with the U.S. Navy in Crane, Indiana, to support the F-18 aircraft depot for electronic warfare systems.
Company delivers 10 halon recharging stations worth $200,000 to support F-16 aircraft. Larry O’Neil's design has been used for more than 30 years. ONEIL continued to provide service parts and complete systems.
Company completed and distributed the EMS-NG suite for use by TACOM staff and prime contractors. EMS-NG became an official “system of record” for the U.S. Army.
Company wins first major direct contract with the U.S. Air Force WPAFB for S1000D and software work.
Company celebrates 65th anniversary.
Company became wholly employee owned.
Robert Heilman, CEO of ONEIL, passes away.
Company celebrates 70th anniversary.
Company sponsors ONEIL Center for Communications at Wright State University and establishes the Robert Heilman fellowship to honor late CEO. (Image Source: Dayton Daily News)
Construction of a AR/VR lab creating a state-of-the-art workshop for augmented and virtual reality product offerings.
Former owner, president, CEO and current chairman of the board at ONEIL, John Staten, passes away.
Announces a new corporate brand identity that positions the product support solutions company for continued growth. The modernized brand design builds on the company’s deep roots in technology services and solutions and highlights its greatest strength: making complex information easier to understand.
