Interview with William Corpew O'Neal 15
February 22, 1996



C: Well, in Gainesville as a lawyer, were you ever involved in civic activities in the city
 government?

0: No. I was a civil trial lawyer, representing insurance companies, largely in automobile
 accidents. I, therefore, could not ever belong to a civic group, such as the Kiwanis, any of them that meet every Thursday at the Primrose Grill, because I practiced in twenty-two counties and I had no idea where I'd be the third Tuesday of the month, so I couldn't have
 been a Lion or Kiwanian or any of those things. I'm sure I would have enjoyed it.

C: Were you ever involved in city government?

0: No, ma'am.

C: For the same reasons?

0: Partly for the same reasons. I remember how honored I felt when I was asked to join a
 group of fifteen or twenty men in the courtroom or one of the hotels or one of the banks, who would persuade someone to take an office. Being a County Commissioner or a City Commissioner would not have revenue-producing activities. We'd be discussing a job and one of the men would say, "Well, old so-and-so's very well qualified. He's never run for public office, but we paid him a zillion dollars through the years to be our lawyer
 and that S.0.B. is going to be running for office or else I will change lawyers."

C: And it's his turn!

0: That's right. I felt most honored to be asked to be a member of that group.

C: And that went on for a good many years but then somewhere along the line it changed
 and that's when the University.

0: It started that the University personnel would run for public office for better or for worse.
 I've often been quoted as saying that Gainesville went to hell about the time we received our twelve hundred and first inhabitant. It was no longer the country town that I was
 raised in or preferred.

C: I think life was better and simpler when Gainesville was a smaller community, but it is a
 beautiful city and it's a nice place to live in spite of a lot of its drawbacks.


0: It is.

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