NEUSTADT, Richard E(lliott) 1919-2003

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born June 26, 1919, in Philadelphia, PA; died of complications following a fall, October 31, 2003, in Ferneux Pelham, Hertfordshire, England. Educator, political advisor, and author. Neustadt was a government professor and advisor to three U.S. presidents who literally wrote the book on the nature of the presidency: 1960's Presidential Power: The Politics of Leadership. He completed his B.A. at the University of California at Berkeley in 1939, and an M.A. from Harvard in 1941, before joining the U.S. Naval Reserve during World War II. After working as an assistant to the director of the U.S. Bureau of the Budget, he became a special assistant to President Harry S. Truman from 1950 to 1953. During this time, he earned a doctorate from Harvard in 1951; after leaving the White House, he began an academic career at Cornell University. He taught for a year at Cornell, followed by ten years atColumbia University, where he became a professor and head of the department of government. While at Columbia, Neustadt split his time between teaching and serving as an advisor to President John F. Kennedy. When Kennedy was assassinated, he continued his position as an advisor to President Lyndon Johnson until 1966. Neustadt's Presidential Power had by then become a bestseller after the general public learned that Kennedy had read it. Neustadt's belief that the power of the president was largely limited to his capacity to persuade Congress and the public to carry out his initiatives is encapsulated in this book; presidents, such as Nixon, who overstep their bounds are bound to pay the political price, he asserted, as long as the democratic process is maintained. As Neustadt's career progressed, he expanded his influential book further, most recently in the 1990 update Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents: The Politics of Leadership from Roosevelt to Reagan. Neustadt's work with Kennedy made him the logical choice to serve as government professor and associate dean of the John Fitzgerald Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, where he joined the faculty in 1965. He later became director of the Institute of Politics from 1966 to 1971, Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Public Administration from 1978 to 1986, and Douglas Dillon Professor of Government from 1987 until his 1989 retirement. In addition to his work as a presidential advisor, Neustadt held other various political posts during the 1960s, serving as a consultant to various government commissions and committees, including for the U.S. Bureau of Budget, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, and the Department of State. Among his other publications are Alliance Politics (1970), The Swine Flu Affair: Decision-Making on a Slippery Disease (1978; revised in 1982 as The Epidemic that Never Was: Policy-Making and the Swine Flu Scare), which he wrote with Harvey V. Fineberg, and Preparing to Be President: The Memos of Richard E. Neustadt (2000).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Chicago Tribune, November 3, 2003, Section 1, p. 10.

Independent (London, England), November 6, 2003, p. 22.

Los Angeles Times, November 3, 2003, p. B9.

New York Times, November 3, 2003, p. A19.

Washington Post, November 3, 2003, p. B6.