About RJ Oneil

I first started working for RJ O’Neil as an admin back in 2009. My work quickly became more than a job for me. I saw firsthand the positive impact we made on real people and real businesses. During that time, I was also raising my daughter. I thought a lot about the example I wanted to set for her and the values I hoped to inspire in her like commitment, resilience, honor, and respect. 


In 2019, after many years of hard work, I purchased the company because I knew RJ O’Neil was built on these same beliefs. Our vision is to give people opportunities to live better lives – from employees and their families, to customers, to the communities we serve.


I’m proud to say we’re a certified woman-owned and minority-owned mechanical contractor. As a niche contractor, we are large enough to tackle challenging projects, yet small enough to always give you personal attention from start to finish.


Choosing RJ O’Neil as your mechanical contractor means having a committed partner by your side from start to finish and everything in between. 


Your growth is at the center of everything we do. Since 1926, building long-term relationships has – and always will be – our top priority. You have my word on this. Our commitment to you, our team and fellow subcontractors will lead us through the next 100 years. We look forward to getting to know you, working with you from installation to maintenance – and being there for your long-term success.

FACTS

1926

YEAR FOUNDED

100%

ON-TIME RATE

95%

REPEAT CLIENTS

(Clients have returned two or more times)


EXPERIENCE

Decades of industry 

experience in HVAC-R, 

Plumbing and Pipefitting 


MARKETS SERVED

Healthcare, education, park districts, industrial, retail spaces, commercial office buildings, government, wastewater, 

hospitality 


CERTIFICATIONS

Minority-Owned Business Enterprise (MBE) and Woman-Owned Enterprise (WBE) by the State of Illinois, City of Chicago and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago; Small Business Enterprise (SBE), Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) 


LICENSED AND BONDED

History. Family. Hard Work.

RJ O’Neil dates back to April of 1926. Roy Joseph O’Neil Sr. announced to his family that he would be leaving his job as a steamfitter at the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad. It was a trade he had learned from his father who came to Aurora from Schenectady NY with the railroad chasing the promise of the American Dream, as so many of his day had done.


At barely 30 years old, Roy with two young children and a third on the way chose to forgo the security of a steady job (10 hours a day, 6 days a week) at the railroad to follow his entrepreneurial spirit of opening his own business. At the time Aurora had a municipal incinerator that generated power. The waste steam that it produced was free to downtown businesses. All they needed was a steam boiler and a pipefitter to hook them up.

Armed with his 1920 model T pickup truck, a box of old tools, (many of which we still have today), and a whole lot of prayers… R.J. O’Neil was born. Times were good. Business continued to grow along with the growing city of Aurora.


Then, the depression came and wiped out the personal fortunes of many. Family businesses suffered and folded, but R.J. O’Neil survived. The Second World War came and past and Roy’s two oldest boys went into the service (Roy Jr. to Europe in the air force & John to the pacific with the marines).

 

When the war ended, everyone came home and the economy’s biggest expansion in American history ensued. New housing was being built faster than men could be found to build them. John and Roy both graduated from the University of Notre Dame. John returned to the family business with big dreams and big plans, and in time Robert the youngest son did as well when he returned from Korea.

 

Along with the housing boom there were new schools; new stores, factories, new government buildings being built, and R. J. O’Neil began to expand into the process piping and commercial plumbing and heating market as well. And with all of the good years and difficult years, R.J. O’Neil continued on.


R.J. O’Neil is a place that challenges and supports their employees to be the best at their craft. They treat people like they are family and actively support the communities they work in. Above all, it is a place where they are proud to share in the legacy and dreams of a man who believed in himself to the point that he risked everything he had, to have a share in that dream. This is a dream that lives on still today.



With so many more stories to be written, we welcome you to come: be a part of our history, our tradition, our family… become apart of the R.J. O’Neil dream.