Peter Aloysius McNeil

MCNEIL PETER ALOYSIUS, carpenter, construction company owner, and architect; b. 3 October 1917 in Dominion, Nova Scotia; son of James McNeil and Catherine MacCormack; m. 1941 Rose McVeigh of Inverness, Cape Breton, and they had six children, Peter Michael, Claire, Douglas, Donalda, Keith, and Sharon; Roman Catholic; d. 4 August 1989. McNeil, a Liberal, was elected to the Legislative Assembly in a by-election on 23 November 1970 for 5th Queens. He was the first Chairman of the Village of Parkdale. He also served on a committee that established the Village of Sherwood. McNeil was a native of Dominion in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. He attended elementary and high school in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. During his teen years, McNeil worked as a carpenter's helper and later as a farm labourer, followed by seven years as a carpenter's helper. During the Second World War, he served in the Royal Canadian Navy in the North Atlantic from 1941 to 1945. While serving with the Navy, he enrolled in an architectural course from the International Correspondence Schools. Later he worked for the Command Maintenance Office as a junior draughtsman under the Chief Architect for four years, while he studied architecture. At the end of the War, McNeill had not yet completed the six-year architect course and returned to the construction business as a carpenter, a carpenters' foreman, and as a construction superintendent. He later began his own construction company, which in 1952 employed 54 workers. However, his desire to work as an architect remained, and he applied for student membership in the Nova Scotia Association of Architects. The Association admitted him as a senior student, and he closed his construction business to work for a Halifax- based architectural firm, managing the Sydney office. In 1957 a love for Prince Edward Island and an association with the Bishop of Charlottetown lured McNeil to the province. He was the owner of Architectural Enterprises Incorporated in Charlottetown. In 1972, he was a founding member and first president of the Architects Association of Prince Edward Island. During his professional career, Peter McNeil designed many buildings in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, including 20 churches, hundreds of senior citizens' units, schools, and recreational centres. Some of the province's buildings designed by McNeil were St. Paul's Church in Summerside, the Basilica Recreation Centre in Charlottetown, and St. Pius X Church in Parkdale. He was a member of the Architects Association of Prince Edward Island, the Specifications Writers of Canada, a Fellow of the Institute of Professional Designers, and a member of the Electric Service League of Prince Edward Island. McNeil was a member of the Royal Canadian Legion. He was president of the Catholic Family Services Bureau, and served three consecutive terms as a director. Peter McNeil died on 4 August 1989 while a resident of Parkdale.