Robert J. "Joe" McNeal

Robert Joseph (Joe) McNeal (1937-2023), a prominent atmospheric scientist, died July 17 at his home in Charlotte, NC. The cause of death was vascular dementia. He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Jean Pulis McNeal; two children, James Robert and Emily Christine McNeal; four grandchildren: Riley, Jay, Sydney and Nathan; a sister Linda McNeal Greer, and multiple nieces, nephews and cousins.

Joe was born in Knoxville, TN to Jack and Lera Louis Overholt McNeal. He grew up in East Tennessee with his two siblings, Jack (deceased 2012) and Linda, and attended tiny elementary schools, Beaumont and Kit Carson in Blount County, graduating in 1955 as valedictorian from Everett High School. The receipt of an Alcoa Foundation Scholarship, offered to children of Alcoa employees, was a defining moment in his life, offering him free tuition to a college of his choice. Following 2 years at Maryville (TN) College, Joe received a B.S. from Berkeley (1959), and a Ph.D. (1964) in chemical physics from Columbia University where he met his future wife, Jean, in chemistry classes. In summers of ’59 and ‘60, he was a guest scientist at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratories doing high temperature chemistry.

Following a NSF post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard (1962-3), Joe joined Aerospace Corporation and served as Head, Atmospheric Kinetic Department. In 1978, he became the first Atmospheric Chemistry Program Director at the NSF, later moving to NASA, where he continued his interest in atmospheric chemistry and its impact on life on earth. He held memberships in Sigma Xi, Phi Lambda Upsilon, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Physical Society. He is the author/co-author of over 100 scientific journal articles.

A major component of Joe’s professional life (1979-2000) was the NASA Global Tropospheric Experiment (GTE), a program of NASA land and aircraft-based experiments over the entire globe that was dedicated to improving knowledge of global tropospheric chemistry and its implications for the biosphere, climate, and stratosphere. GTE focused on measuring and understanding the potential impacts of human activities on Earth’s climate and on the terrestrial biosphere. Included in GTE was the Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite (UARS), launched in 1991 from the Space Shuttle Discovery; it was an orbital observatory designed to study the Earth’s atmosphere, particularly the protective ozone layer. Contributing members of the research teams included scientists from NOAA (US), Brazil, China, UK, several European countries, as well as major US universities: Harvard, Georgia Tech, MIT, VA tech, etc. The mission to the Amazon in Brazil, during both wet and dry seasons over a period of years, involved more than 80 US and 80 Brazilian scientists. Another expedition involving measuring “pollutants” in “pre-industrial” China, has served as a baseline to evaluating the environmental cost of industrialization.

Following retirement in 2000, Joe continued old loves (including movies, music, following the New York Yankees and traveling) and explored new passions such as photography, ballroom dancing, and enjoying his grandchildren. He was a “hi-fi” enthusiast and early adopter of digital communication technologies. He became a Stephens Minister at National Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC. Jean and Joe shared many happy trips to Europe, Southeast Pacific, Brazil, Alaska, Mexico, and the Caribbean.

For those who wish to remember Joe (Robert Joseph McNeal (1937-2023), we ask that you make memorial gifts to Hospice of Charlotte:

VIA Health Partner

Attn: Philanthropy

PO Box 470408

Charlotte, NC 28247