Maurice L. McNeely, age 84 departed this life to be with our Lord on February 21, 2019. Mac, as he was often called, was born on April 20, 1934 in Arnett, Oklahoma to Joe R. and Inez McNeely. Mac was preceded in death by his wife of 56 years, Joan Sprague McNeely, who was the love of his life. He leaves behind his daughters, Nancy Cook and her husband Jerry, Carol Neill and her husband James, Joyce McNeely-Kreitzer and her husband Tim, his brother T.J. McNeely, and granddaughter Joanna Arnold, along with a great number of relatives and friends.
Mac graduated from high school in 1952, then attended Oklahoma A&M College for 2 years before volunteering in the U.S. Army in 1954. There, he was selected to go to the Army’s Nike Guided Missile school in preparation for the defense of the U.S. during the Cold War. He was later stationed at the Fox Hill missile launch site near Hampton Roads, Virginia. Following his discharge, he returned to the renamed Oklahoma State University to complete his degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1959.
Mac found work to his liking in nearby Tulsa with Douglas Aircraft as a Development Test engineer. He was a lead engineer involved with early missile payload development tests, and then Apollo hardware development tests during the early space race. Because of this experience he transferred to Cape Canaveral as a Douglas launch preparation engineer. Mac was involved with two Apollo development launches that contributed to the knowledge base of the Saturn V program. Sadly, he was on console on Launch Pad 34 during a Plugs-In Test when the Apollo 1 capsule fire occurred.
In 1968, as the Apollo program developed into the Moon Landing phase, Mac transferred with Douglas as part of the SIVB Flight Control team at JSC. He was assigned to the SIVB engine position in the Vehicle SSR. He was humbled to be selected with the call sign ENGINE for the Apollo 11 mission. He alternated Apollo SIVB mission assignments until the last Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
Mac was ultimately involved with NASA follow on programs such as Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz, Space Shuttle and early Space Station activities. He retired after 33 years with the merged McDonnell-Douglas Company.
After his retirement, he was able to fulfill a lifelong desire of touring the U.S. on a motorcycle, most often with Joan. In between tours, for 15 years, he volunteered teaching seniors about their personal computers with a branch of the Houston League of PC users in Clear Lake City. Mac was a generous person who spent many hours helping area seniors with repair and maintenance of their homes when they became unable to do it themselves. He also enjoyed the camaraderie of the “Thursday Lunch Bunch”. What a great life it was!

A memorial will be held at the Clear Lake Methodist Church at 16055 El Camino Real on Friday, March 22nd, 2019 at 11am with a reception to follow in the Church’s Fellowship Hall. In lieu of flowers, those wishing to make a donation in his name may do so to the Michael J. Fox Parkinson’s Foundation at https://www.michaeljfox.org/