newspaperman politician author
Richard Lewis Neuberger was born on December 26, 1912 in Portland, Oregon, United States. He was the son of Isaac Neuberger, a restaurant owner, and Ruth Lewis. His father had come to the Pacific Northwest from Hainstadt, Germany, at the age of seventeen; his mother was the daughter of German immigrants.
Neuberger attended the public schools of Portland and graduated from Lincoln High School in 1930. In high school he was drawn to journalism; became a sports reporter for the school newspaper; and met Lair H. Gregory, sports editor of the Portland Oregonian, who taught him the fundamentals of newspaper work. In the fall of 1931, after working as Gregory's assistant for a year, he entered the University of Oregon at Eugene to major in journalism. As a student Neuberger showed more interest in campus activities and politics than in scholarship. When only a sophomore he was appointed editor of the Oregon Daily Emerald, the student newspaper, and quickly became a controversial crusader for, among other things, the abolition of the mandatory military training program and compulsory student fees. He left the university without receiving a degree.
In 1933, after a trip to Germany, Neuberger published his first magazine article, "The New Germany, " in the Nation; his first signed article in the New York Times appeared the following year. In January 1935, Neuberger returned to the Oregonian as a reporter and feature writer. At the same time he continued his free-lance writing. His articles appeared regularly in the Nation, Harper's, the Saturday Evening Post, Current History, the New Republic, and other magazines. In 1936 he was appointed New York Times correspondent for the Pacific Northwest and between 1936 and 1938 wrote three books of polemic, rather than particular literary, merit.
Neuberger's articles and books, most of which dealt with the Pacific Northwest and western politics and conservation, served as his carefully constructed bridge to politics. Although unsuccessful in a bid for the state senate in 1936, he was elected to the legislative assembly as a Democrat from Multnomah County (Portland) in 1940.
In July 1942 he enlisted in the U. S. Army as a second lieutenant, served as aide-de-camp to General James A. O'Connor during construction of the Alaska Military Highway, and was discharged with the rank of captain in August 1945, having produced reams of publicity for the project.
In 1948 he was elected to the state senate; two years later his wife joined him in the legislature as a member of the legislative assembly. Meanwhile, Neuberger produced a large number of magazine articles and three more books.
In 1954 he ran for the U. S. Senate. His victory, a milestone in efforts to rejuvenate Democratic state politics, marked the first time in forty years that Oregonians had sent a Democrat to the Senate.
Four years into his Senate term, a routine physical examination revealed a malignant tumor. Following surgery in 1958 and extensive radiation treatment, he died in Portland of a cerebral hemorrhage.
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Neuberger joined liberal Democrats in an effort to break the traditional Republican monopoly on Oregon politics.
He became less the ardent Democrat and more the nonpartisan. At the same time he strongly expressed the issues that had been central to both his political and his literary careers: conservation and political reform.
Because of his tireless advocacy of Alaskan statehood, public power, and the preservation of natural and scenic resources, Neuberger became popularly known as "Mr. Conservation. "
Neuberger was combative, outspoken, and at times brash.
He was a facile public speaker.
On December 20, 1945, he married Maurine Brown, a teacher of physical education and English. They had no children.
