Kelly O'Neill Scholarship

A chance meeting at DMACC’s Boone campus in 1972 changed the course of Kelly Michael O’Neill’s life. This scholarship celebrates the power of DMACC to effect change.

Then a new high school graduate, O’Neill had just learned that his summer job with the Iowa Highway Commission had been eliminated. He stopped by DMACC on a whim, to look up a Rod McKuen poem. He asked an employee, Richard Finnestad, for directions to the library.

Just 20 minutes later, with Finnestad’s encouragment, O’Neill had enrolled in DMACC classes for the fall semester, picked up his textbooks, and embarked on a journey that led him to graduate school and a 40-year executive career in human resources.

O’Neill was the first member of his family to attend college, and every one of his nine younger siblings followed in his footsteps. He hopes this scholarship will provide similar encouragement to many future DMACC students.