Dauntless Courage and Boundless Ambition: The Life of Buckey O’Neill – Surprise

Buckey O’Neill was one of Arizona’s legendary pioneers, even author William MacLeod Raine called him “the most many-sided man Arizona has produced”. Before dying in Cuba while serving as one of Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, O’Neill made his mark in Arizona as a newspaper editor, sheriff, mayor, and prospector, among other professions. Whether chasing train robbers across the Arizona’s frontier, promoting the Grand Canyon as a tourist destination, or reforming education practices while serving as school superintendent, he lived with an eye toward helping Arizona mature from an untamed western territory to a creditable state.

Kevin Schindler is an award-winning educator and writer who has worked for more than 20 years at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff. He was sheriff of the Flagstaff Corral of Westerners for 14 years and a board member of the Flagstaff Festival of Science for 16 years. Combining a dual passion for history and science, he has presented hundreds of educational programs, authored four books, written more than 400 magazine and newspaper articles, and contributes a bi-weekly astronomy column for the Arizona Daily Sun.