Specific Pioneering Contributions
John Saunders McNeil, PhD, MSSW, a social work leader in the worlds of both the military and academia, made several pioneering contributions both in the United States Air Force and within social work research and academia. His inclusion in the NASW Social Work Pioneers is long overdue, and frankly, an oversight based on his many pioneering contributions.
During his 45-plus years as a social worker, McNeil served in the United States Air Force for 25 years and in academia for the next 20 years. While in the U.S. Air Force, he achieved the rank of Colonel and was one of the only Black men of his generation to serve as both a national leader in the Air Force and to be on a short list to promoted to the rank of General.
Across his successful military career, he made many national and international contributions to the development and administration of social work and mental health services in the U.S. Air Force, including the delivery of social services for 150 master’s- and doctoral-level social workers across 80 Air Force installations in the United States and abroad. His ability to scale social work best practices through leadership and training across multiple countries benefitted countless service members in the U.S. military.
In 1976, the U.S. Air Force recognized McNeil’s outstanding contributions by selecting him as the Air Force Social Worker of the Decade. He was appointed five times as the Chief of Social Work, where he directed social services at leading military installations and hospitals in the U.S. and Germany. McNeil’s national and international contributions to military social work and to mental health practice within the U.S. Air Force certainly show why he should be designated as a NASW Social Work Pioneer. These significant and trailblazing contributions, however, are only one part of his impactful career.
After retiring from his 25-year career in the U.S. Air Force, McNeil pursued an academic career for twenty years. From 1978 to 1991, McNeil served on the faculty at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), and from 1991 to his retirement from academia in 1998, he served on the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin), where he also held the prestigious Louis and Ann Wolens Chair in Gerontology.
During his academic career, McNeil also made pioneering contributions to social work research, leadership, practice, and service to the profession. McNeil co-chaired NASW’s Health/Mental Health Specialty Group’s first megaconference, served the National Association of Social Workers as Chair of the Texas Chapter’s Committee on Inquiry, and also served on the editorial board of the Journal of Multicultural Social Work, among many other journals.
While at UTA, McNeil served in several administrative, research and practice roles including Director of the Ph.D. program, Acting Dean, Assistant Director of a five-year NIMH training grant in minority aging, and Director of UTA’s Community Services Clinic. From these roles, he made important contributions to social work practice and innovated in research and interventions.
While McNeil’s served as the Director of the Community Service Clinic at UTA, for example, he contributed to social work practice on a national scale. Dr. McNeil worked with his colleague, Dr. Jeanne Deschner, to research and develop an evidence-based Cognitive Behavioral (CBT), group-based, intervention for interpersonal violence. This CBT program for couples was ground-breaking intervention-research that impacted practice in interpersonal violence. This intervention was extremely innovative because no family-based social work programs were at the forefront of interpersonal violence during the 1980s — and certainly none were developed using experimental research designs.
His research showed that after receiving the CBT program, 85% of the families were free of further violence — and importantly — remained free of violence for several months following the intervention. Results from this research were published in the Journal of Family Violence and disseminated in book chapters and a training manual. Many practitioners in the interpersonal violence field sought clinical training from McNeil and his team at the Community Services Clinic. He also presented the program at national social work conferences, such as NASW. The family-based CBT program was successfully implemented for many years in the Community Services clinic at UTA to clients from Child Protective Service agencies and other practitioners across the nation.
While on the faculty of UT-Austin, McNeil focused on research and the development of faculty leaders in areas such as gerontology, family violence, and evidence-based mental health treatment. McNeil continuously worked on the prevalent family and social issues of the day such as AIDS, family caregiving burden, and family violence and homicide.
Additionally, during his time at UT-Austin, he supervised dissertations where he mentored exemplary leaders in the field. He updated current practices on evidence-based thinking by working with his students to champion the use of family-based, psychoeducation in the treatment of persistent mental disorders. For example, McNeil co-authored with his students an important practice debate article responding to Max Siporin. In this spirited exchange, McNeil and his students argued that, based on evidence, social workers needed to learn family psychoeducation in addition to ecological and interactional approaches to social work. (Families in Society, 1991).
Through dedicated mentorship of doctoral students and early career faculty, McNeil left a lasting legacy by continuously extending himself to support the success of others. Many of his students and mentees have gone on to become leaders in the profession, with several joining the ranks of NASW Social Work Pioneers.
Career Highlights
From 1951 to 1954, McNeil served as a psychiatric social worker at Sampson Air Force Base in Geneva, New York, and from 1954 to 1956 at the U.S. Air Force Hospital at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Anchorage, Alaska.
He was then promoted to Chief Psychiatric Social Worker and served at the U.S. Air Force Hospital at Parks Air Force Base, Pleasanton, CA, and at the U.S. Air Force Hospital at Travis Air Force Base, Fairfield, CA. After receiving his doctorate, he became Chief Social Worker at Wilford Hall Medical Center, Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, TX, and at the U.S. Air Force Hospital at Wiesbaden Air Base, Wiesbaden, Germany.
He was then moved to the David Grant Medical Center, Mental Health Clinic, Travis Air Force Base, CA, where he served as Director and Chief Social Worker and was promoted to Assistant Chairman, Department of Mental Health. From 1971 to 1978, he was Chief of Social Services in U.S. Air Force, and from 1978 to 1998, Dr. McNeil served in academia. He first worked for UT-Arlington from 1978 to 2001 and then at the University of Texas at Austin from 2001 to 2008.
After his retirement from academia, Dr. McNeil returned to clinical practice, where for the next decade-plus. In his twilight years, he volunteered at St. John Church in Grand Prairie, Texas, where he helped the church develop a counseling center.
Biographic Information
McNeil was born September 8, 1927, to John and Julia McNeil in Hampton, Virginia. He passed away on May 24, 2023, in Arlington, Texas. In 1956, Dr. McNeil married Bettye Bettis and they lived a long and prosperous life together until Betty’s death in 2015. McNeil and Bettye have one son, Thomas McNeil, M.D., and a granddaughter, Anna McNeil, JD, who practices law in Norman, Oklahoma.
McNeil graduated from Storer College with a Bachelor of Arts in 1948, obtained a Masters of Social Work degree in Atlanta University in 1951, and a Doctor of Social Work at the University of Southern California in 1964. McNeil was active in two fraternities. He joined the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity in 1945 and later joined the Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity. McNeil entered the U.S. Air Force in 1951 and obtained the rank of Colonel, serving until 1978. During his time in the Air Force, McNeil became Chief Social Worker of the U.S. Air Force.
In 1978, McNeil became Associate Professor and then Professor at the University of Texas at Arlington’s School of Social Work, and in 1991, he moved to Austin to serve at the UT-Austin School of Social Work to assume the role of Professor and Wolens Endowed Chair in Gerontology. During his academic career he held administrative positions including Ph.D. director, acting Dean, and Chair of the gerontological curriculum. Upon his retirement from UT-Austin in 1998, he was recommended as an Emeritus Professor.
McNeil and his wife Bettye were long term members of St. John Church in Grand Prairie, Texas where they both served in several voluntary leadership positions. In 2013, St. John Church dedicated its new Victory Place Counseling Center to Dr. and Mrs. McNeil to honor their years of service.
Significant Achievements and Awards
- 1976 - Air Force Social Worker of the Decade
- 1986 - Teacher of the Year, UT-Arlington
- 1987 - U.S. Department of Labor Youth Project of the Year
- 1991 - Wolens Endowed Chair in Gerontology, UT-Austin
- 1998 - Professor Emeritus, UT-Austin
Significant Publications
During his academic career, Dr. John S. McNeil published over 40 scholarly articles or book chapters, nine books or monographs, and served on the editorial board of the Journal of Multicultural Social Work. He contributed important contributions in military research, mental health and family services. A few examples of his major contributions are mentioned below:
Brown, M., McNeil, J.S., Lecca, P. & Wright, R. (1985). Military Retirement: Economic, Social and Mental Health Dilemmas. Southern Economic Journal. 51. 940.10.2307/1057904.
This article on the miliary provided important policy implications for work in the military showing data and implications for what happens to those who retire from military service.
Deschner, J.P., & McNeil, J.S. (1986). Results of anger control training for battering couples. Journal of Family Violence, 1, 111-120.
McNeil developed this innovative program with his colleague Dr. Jeanne Deschner while he directed the Communities Services Clinic at UTA. This CBT program for couples was a ground-breaking intervention that impacted practice in the interpersonal violence field during the 1980s.
Simon, C. & McNeil, J. S., Franklin, C. & Cooperman, A. (1991). The Family and Schizophrenia: Toward a Psychoeducational Approach. Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services. 72. 323-334. 10.1177/104438949107200601.
This publication sparked a national conversation and debate in the 1990s within social work practice about what are the best, evidence-based practices for working with people who were diagnosed with schizophrenia. This topic and conversation also extended to other areas of persistent mental illness and health care.
Sprang, G. McNeil, J.S. & Wright, R. (1989). Psychological Changes after the Murder of a Significant Other. Social Casework. 70. 159-164. 10.1177/104438948907000305.
This pioneering research contributed a multifaceted view of survivors' reactions to violent death in the family. This research contributed new understandings concerning how religious beliefs and social support systems affect coping with violent death and provided implications for social work interventions based on gender and ethnic factors.
Franklin, C. & McNeil, J. & Wright, R. (1991). The Effectiveness of Social Work in an Alternative School for High School Dropouts. Social Work With Groups. 14. 59-73. 10.1300/J009v14n02_05.
This article shows another example of the pioneering work of McNeil while he was Director of the Community Service Clinic. The UT-Arlington Graduate School of Social Work and a private alternative school collaborated to develop an educational treatment program for high school dropout youth. This program was funded by Job Training and Partnership Act and was recognized by the U.S. Department of Labor as the Outstanding Youth Project of the Year in 1987.
Sprang, G. & McNeil, J. (1997). The Many Faces of Bereavement: The Nature and Treatment of Natural, Traumatic, and Stigmatized Grief. New York: Routledge.
This innovative and research-based book on grief went beyond the current understanding of grief by type of death to show the influence of many different sociodemographic and personal variables that influence the grief process. It was a major contribution to practice literature.