Victor Ray Neal, MD

Victor Neal, MD, born January 16, 1933, Wanette, Oklahoma, died October 13, 2026, age 93 in Tulsa.

Married for 55 years to the late Mary Shepherd Neal, father to and survived by 5 sons, Dan, Ron, Tom, Richard and Pete. Grandfather to ten, great grandfather to even more, and a great, great grandfather to two boys, as well as many greatly loved nieces and nephews.  Companion to the late Barbara Chapman for more than a decade. Joyfully a “bonus” grandfather and great grandfather to Barbara’s family and also to family friend Kelly’s granddaughter. Alumnus of the University of Oklahoma Medical School 1957, undergraduate of East Central University, Ada, Oklahoma, class of 2008 (there’s a story there). Moved to Tulsa to help found the anesthesia practice at a tiny pink hospital on the edge of Tulsa with Drs. Bennett and Wenger but wound up giving the first anesthesia at Saint Francis as the most junior doc because the others were not available. He said, “It was Oct. 1, 1960, started at 9:10 am, ended at 9:30 am, was a repeat C-section….”

During the height of the Vietnam war, he served as Captain Dr. Neal in Saigon and then at Fort Carson in Colorado. He was promoted to Major. A joy of his later years was seeing granddaughter Aubrey Neal graduate from medical school and as Major Dr. Neal to sign the commissioning papers for Captain Dr. Neal.  Valedictorian at Wanette, he was the youngest and last living child of Henry Neal and Mamie Hardin Neal, and the last of his first cousins living.   After retiring from Associated Anesthesiologists, he became a “non-gentleman” working farmer/rancher, running cattle with Mary Neal in Okmulgee County. He loved water skiing, road biking, and learned to snow ski around 40. His wish for his 80th birthday was “to ski a short mogul field and a short black diamond run”… which he did.

After Mary’s death, he attended a widowers and widows support group where he met Barbara Chapman who promptly improved his wardrobe and they also enriched each other’s lives. They traveled for more than a decade: Venice, Corfu, Ephesus, Barcelona, Naples, Rome, Marseille, Paris, the D-Day beaches, Dublin, Copenhagen, Helsinki, and more, often with one or another grandkid along.

A man of faith, he attended Saint Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, New Haven Methodist, and Christ Church Tulsa though he and Barbara got dragged into Episcopal/Anglican churches all over the world when they traveled, mostly willingly (however, too much standing and kneeling they said).  He spent the last part of his life, sharing a room with Barbara at Zarrow Pointe, so that they could continue their habit of having dinner together and falling asleep watching Fox News.

His family is especially grateful for the kindness of the staff at Zarrow Pointe and to the Jewish community of Tulsa for this facility and their willingness to share it.

His service will be on Saturday, November 14, at 11 am at Boston Avenue Methodist Church, 1301 South Boston Avenue, downtown Tulsa.

Rather than flowers, the family would appreciate consideration of a gift in his memory to Iron Gate, 501 West Archer or to the Tulsa Day Center, 415 West Archer, 74103. Helping others was important to him.