Frederick D. O'Neal, a retired Baltimore businessman who had owned Mondawmin Photo Supply in Mondawmin Mall for more than three decades, died April 1 at Northwest Hospital of cardiac arrest and lung failure. He was 82.
The son of John McKinley O'Neal, a Pullman porter, and Ora Lee Bates O'Neal, a department store elevator operator, Frederick Douglas O'Neal was born and raised in St. Paul, Minn., where he graduated in 1950 from Central High School.
He attended Howard University and earned a divinity degree in 1958 from Washington Baptist Seminary. Later, he became assistant pastor and served as youth pastor at Vermont Avenue Baptist Church in Washington.
In 1963, he and his wife established Mondawmin Photo Supply, also known as The Photo Shop, in Mondawmin Mall. He owned and operated the business until retiring in 1998.
Mr. O'Neal was an original Harborplace tenant, establishing a Haagen-Dazs ice cream franchise in 1980 that he owned and operated until 1998.
He also owned a Long John Silver's seafood restaurant and another Haagen-Dazs store in The Shops at National Place in Washington from 1984 to 1985.
From 1966 to 1994, he was president of the Mondawmin Merchants Association. In 1969, he was elected to the board of directors of the Baltimore Council for Equal Business Opportunity and in 1973 was named to the Baltimore City Economic Development Commission by Mayor William Donald Schaefer.
For his efforts as a member of the Lower Park Heights Coordinating Council working with underprivileged children, Mr. O'Neal was named to the Afro American Newspaper Honor Roll in 1969.
The former Randallstown resident, who lived in Pikesville in recent years, also did fundraising for the old Provident Hospital, the Boy Scouts of America and food donations.
Plans for a memorial service are incomplete.
Mr. O'Neal is survived by two sons, John O'Neal of Damascus and Roderick O'Neal of Phoenix, Ariz.; two daughters, Andrea O'Neal of Pikesville and Yvette Dill of Washington; two sisters, Harriet Grier of Charlotte, N.C., and Ora Lee Patterson of St. Paul; and four grandchildren. Marriages to Consuella "Connie" Lewis and Marty O'Neal ended in divorce.