Rev. Neil J. O’Connell, O.F.M., has accepted a position as assistant professor of history and assistant to the chaplain at Prairie View A. and M. College in Prairie View, Texas.

Fr. Neil will received his Doctor of Philosophy Degree in history from the University of Georgia, Aug. 22.

Since September 1967, while working toward his degree in Athens, he has assisted Chaplains Fr. Christian Malone, O.F.M., and Fr. Joe Holohan, O.F.M., at the Catholic Center at the University of Georgia.

He received his B.A. from St. Bonaventure University in 1960, S.T.B. from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. in 1964, and his M.A. in History from Siena College in Albany, New York in 1967 when he came to Athens to work on his degree.

Fr. Neil will assist the present chaplain at Prairie View, Fr. Robert Bowen, in addition to his duties as assistant history professor. Prairie View was founded in 1876 and is the second oldest state supported higher learning in Texas.