TRIBUTES have been paid to a former college principal who has died.

Father Kevin O’Neill, who rose through the ranks as teacher, vice-principal and then principal of St Mary’s College, Blackburn, has been described as the ‘life and soul of any party’.

The 74-year-old was admitted to hospital but was transferred to Carter Bequest Hospital, Middlesbrough, where he died.

Father O’Neill, who had lived and worked in Blackburn from 1964, became principal in 1978, when the Shear Brow college first became a sixth form centre.

He left in 1993.

The college said Father O’Neill would be ‘greatly missed’.

College governor Father Noel Wynn, said: “Kevin was the life and soul of any party and found a great deal of enjoyment in life.

"He was a keen traveller and accompanied many parties of students abroad to Italy and Greece, a country he continued to visit on his own or with congenial confreres.

“He was a great communicator with people of all ages and had a wonderful sense of humour.”

In 2008 a new £2.5million performing arts centre - O’Neill Academy for Performing Arts - was named after the former principal.

And St Mary’s College plans to hold a commemorative mass in memory of him.

Father O’Neill was born in Barking near Dagenham in 1936 and baptised by the future cardinal John Heenan.

He attended St Mary's College, Middlesbrough and Christ's College Cambridge, where he gained an MA in English in 1963.

He was ordained a priest of the Society of Mary in March 1964 in Paignton, Devon.

Father O’Neill then decided to become a teacher.

After retiring, Father O’Neill began to show the first signs of dementia in 1996.

Father Wynn added: “He suffered patiently, with good humour, and was still able to tap his foot to the strains of Dusty Springfield, a long-time favourite of his.

"An infection necessitated a move to hospital from which he was transferred to Carter Bequest hospital where he died peacefully in the early hours of Sunday March 20 2011.”