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Michael Neal
The funeral of Michael "Mike" Neal, 50, of 805 Country Lane, Bloomington, agency manager for Franklin Life Insurance Co. and former area football coach, will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Matthews Episcopal Church of Bloomington, the Rev. George Wilcox officiating.
Burial will be in Park Hill Cemetery.
Visitation will be 4 to 8 p.m. today at Beck Memorial Home in Bloomington, with a prayer service at 7:45 p.m.
Mr. Neal died at 9:53 p.m. Tuesday (Jan. 10, 1995) at Springfield Memorial Hospital. Death was due to natural causes.
He was born March 17, 1944 at Bloomington, a son of Arthur M. and Alice Marie Dorrell Neal. He married Judy Winquist August 20, 1966 at Bloomington. She survives.
Other survivors include two sons Tyler Jordan, at home, and Michael Arthur, Bloomington; one daughter, Felicia Lynn Neal, Bloomington; two sisters, Barbara Klawitter and Jessie Elshoff, both of Bloomington; and three brothers, Francis Bell, Bloomington; Jack Bell, Lafayette, Ind.; and Robert Bell, Lexington, KY.
His parents, two brothers and one sister preceded him in death.
Mr. Neal was a 1962 graduate of Bloomington High School. He attended Arizona State University and was a 1966 graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University.
From 1966 to 1970, Mr. Neal was head football and track coach at Joliet's Washington Junior High School; in 1970 he was sophomore football coach and assistant baseball coach at Bloomington High School, taking over the duties of head football coach in 1973. He resigned from BHS in 1978. From 1978 to 1981, he was an assistant football coach at Illinois Wesleyan University.
Mr Neal also coached in the Central Illinois Junior Football League and was a basketball official for several years. He played professional football for the Joliet Explorers and the Chicago Owls
He was a member of St. matthews Episcopal Church, IWU's Sigma Chi Fraternity, Evergreen racket Club, Bloomington-Normal Tennis Association and a Twin City Track Club board member.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to St. Matthews Episcopal Church, the BHS Booster Club, or to the Illinois Wesleyan University Athletics Fund.
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Janice Scott (Vitton)
One of my most fond memories of Bloomington High School was my interaction with Mike. Many times when I come to Bloomington for a visit and I see the High School my mind flashes back to 1962 and the friendship extended to my by Mike. Although that senior year was my only year in Boomington, Mike exteded a friendship that began in a Geogrpahy class we had together with Ms. Margaret Means. If you were fortunate to have ever had her as a teacher you might remember that she would give you a project and expect you to get it accomplished without a great deal of interference. At any rate Mike would work next to me and he would strike up converstations to help a "new student" get aclimated to a new environment. He aslo invited my on a couple of "road trips" to basketaball games during that year. I'm sure Mike didn't realize what a positive impression of the school and community he made to me. Jerry Vitton