‘Doc’ McNeal set to retire after 41 years of teaching at USU

In 2007, near Evanston Wyoming, Lyle McNeal laid unconscious after a 385-pound ram hit him in the chest and face, knocking him off a ledge and into the sagebrush below. McNeal was unalert for six minutes while a medical student cleaned up his wounds. The rest of the worried students in attendance waited for an ambulance to find them in the middle of nowhere.

 This is only one of the many stories McNeal, a retiring USU agricultural professor, can recall in his over 40 years of teaching and ranching. McNeal admits that in the last four decades he has had almost every part of his body operated on due to multiple accidents with animals and students alike. However, he says he has no regrets, he loves his work and that these accidents come with the territory.

 “Working with large animals, things happen and students mess up. In that instance, and it was the most recent one, a few students, freshmen, who I had told not to let any animals out did and before I knew it he was out, and he just leaped and hit me right in the face and chest knocking me off the ledge,” McNeal said.

He continued.

 “As a result, my spine was fractured. I’ve had a number of surgeries and chronic pain and I hate it. I’ve got scoliosis and I have to get people to help me and I can’t bend down,” he said.

 Despite the accidents, McNeal says that he loves taking students out to get hands-on experience.

His students refer to him as “Doc” because he received his doctorates degree from USU in a time when he says master’s degrees were the highest one would typically go.

 “Doc is just the nicest teacher on campus and he really does care about his students,” Ashlee Jenkins, a former student said. “All of his classes are experience-based rather than text book based and he’s a fountain of knowledge.”

 Upon awarding McNeal the Marquis Who’s Who award, The American Sheep Industry Association said that “as an animal and veterinary science educator and rancher consultant with more than 50 years of academic and industry experience, McNeal is widely regarded in the scientific community as a sheep, goat and fiber specialist.” McNeal has received this honor multiple times.

  “He’s such an amazing man and has made a huge impact on my college career and life,” said former student Hilary Johns.

 McNeal has had many jobs in his lifetime. He’s worked as a county agent for the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension Service, as a professor in the Animal Science Department at California Polytechnic State University and was a collaborative staff scientist at the United States Department of Agriculture Sheep Experiment Station. It was July 1979 when he joined the USU faculty, and before that, he conducted a one-year research sabbatical at the university.

 “Lyle’s dedication to students and exemplary performance mentoring them is remarkable,” said Dirk Vanderwall, the animal, dairy, and veterinary sciences department head.

 McNeal was awarded the CHASS Faculty Mentor of the Year Award in 2017 and the 2017-2018 Undergraduate Faculty Member of the Year Robins Award. In addition to these awards, McNeal has a 12-page vitae that highlights 59 other awards and 17 jobs in his career dating back to his family ranch in Montana.

McNeal was also a professional consultant for the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Bureau of Indian’ Affairs, has numerous publication credits, worked with the Boy Scouts of America and served in the Air Force.

  “I feel blessed with what I’ve been able to do in my life, besides just my family. It’s not about money,” McNeal said. “I have four boys and four girls, a Navajo foster daughter and 16 grandchildren, only two of which are boys. Two of the girls want to be veterinarians and all of my children moved to cities, which is understandable after being raised on a farm.”

 McNeal spoke about his time in the Air Force relating it to how he treats students.

McKay Jensen

 “It’s interesting, the chain of command,” McNeal said. “We have that here at the university too, with the students being enlisted, but we have to remember to respect them as well even though they are learning the basics.”

McNeal has many stories that he’s willing to share including some about students he’s worked with, befriending John Wayne and changing his career from becoming an OB-GYN to animal science.  

 “A lot of things come across my plate that I didn’t plan on as a professor and I’ve had to learn along the way,” McNeal said. “During my time here, I have had seven students that I have helped off the ledge from committing suicide, I’ve been stalked by students who show up at my house, and I’ve, unfortunately, been around to comfort students who have been raped.”

 McNeal has also seen a lot of change on campus.

 “Back in the early days, our classes were mostly guys. We didn’t have many ladies or a vet school program like we do now. The classes were small, the campus only being about 3,600 people, and I’ve seen the school grow a lot, it’s been tremendous,” McNeal said.

He brought a project from California to USU that involved working with a rare, almost extinct, breed of sheep called the Churro. This breed is considered sacred to the Navajo people.

“I formed the Navajo Sheep Project, a nonprofit, to help breed up the numbers of these sheep and find remnants on the Navajo reservation, the largest Indian reservation in the United States, so that they could use the wool to make their tapestries,” he explained.

 After bringing the program to USU, now 42 years later, McNeal continues to take students to California to help the Navajo people.

 “We would take my truck and bed rolls and hay for the sheep, if we found any, because they had been all but killed off. However, in my research I found out these sheep are resistance to parasites and some diseases.”

 Later, McNeal also took over the Swine program at USU when the previous professor was fired.

“I do the job of two faculty members. I’m here every day no later at 6:00 to get ready for the day, if I’m not working on the ranch or on a field trip with students,” McNeal said.

 On July 1, 2019, McNeal will be retiring from USU and says that he wants to spend time doing genealogy with his wife, travel with his family, continue his work with the Navajo reservation, and even establish a museum here in Cache County for his expansive western memorabilia and World War Two collection.

 His advice for his students is to “be open to new areas and venues of thought.”

 “Listen to your close friends and the people you meet at the university, but also listen to your heart and follow what you really want to do. We all make mistakes and we all take detours in life, but be open-minded and let your spirit guide you to what you want to do. Those closest to you should not tell you what to do. You are a free agent and have the power to do anything you want.”

 McNeal said that he still reads every night in a continuous effort to learn.

 “I’m still learning. Learning is a life-long process and it’s never over. I love history, I’m not an office person. I like to be outside, with animals and I love taking students on field trips to get their hands on. I don’t believe in final exam weeks, it’s a waste of time. It would be better to have another week with our students learning and doing things rather than throwing up what we hopefully memorize. Things you see and do with your hands will never be forgotten.”

 McNeal is excited for the next phase in his life but advises the community and the university to treat students with respect.

“My philosophy is that our students are the most important citizens on our campus. They are dependent on us and we are dependent on them. They are not an outsider in our university. They are part of it. We are not doing them a favor by serving them. They are doing us a favor by giving us the opportunity to do so.”

—erickwood97@gmail.com

@GrahamWoodMedia