Education
Columbia University; University of Oregon.
Columbia University; University of Oregon.
He is best known for Dark Horse, an authorized biography of 1940 presidential candidate Wendell Willkie. Journalist After studying at the University of Oregon and Columbia University, Neal served as a bylined reporter and columnist for the Oregon Journal, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Chicago Tribune, rising to the level of White House correspondent for the Tribune. From 1987 until 2004, he worked with the Chicago Sun-Times, writing a frequent political column for their editorial page.
In 1999, a collection of Neal"s columns, Rolling on the River, was published by the Southern Illinois University Press.
Historian His hero, however, was Abraham Lincoln, and he campaigned for public support to transfer Lincoln"s papers and memorabilia to a scholarly, nonpolitical library and museum that would serve as a focus for public education of the life of the 16th President of the United States. Neal was found dead at his Hinsdale home on February 18, 2004 after having inhaled a fatal quantity of carbon monoxide.