Richard Elliott Neustadt (June 26, 1919 – October 31, 2003) was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 political

Politics

Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...

 scientist

Scientist

A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...

 specializing in the United States presidency

President of the United States

The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

. He also served as advisor to several presidents.

Biography

Born in Philadelphia

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

, Neustadt received a BA

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 in History from the University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

 in 1939, followed by an M.A.

Master's degree

A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...

 degree from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 in 1941. After a short stint as an economist in the Office of Price Administration

Office of Price Administration

The Office of Price Administration was established within the Office for Emergency Management of the United States government by Executive Order 8875 on August 28, 1941. The functions of the OPA was originally to control money and rents after the outbreak of World War II.President Franklin D...

, he joined the U.S. Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 in 1942, where he was a supply officer in the Aleutian Islands, and stayed until 1946. He then went into the Bureau of Budget (now known as the Office of Management and Budget) while working on his Harvard Ph.D.

Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

, which he received in 1951.

He was the Special Assistant of the White House

White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

 Office from 1950-53 under President Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...

. During the following year, he was a professor

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 of public administration

Public administration

Public Administration houses the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline that studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work. As a "field of inquiry with a diverse scope" its "fundamental goal.....

 at Cornell

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

, then from 1954-64, taught government at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

, where he received a Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award in 1961.

It was at Columbia that Neustadt wrote Presidential Power (1960; a revised edition titled Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents: The Politics of Leadership appeared in 1990), in which he examined the decision-making process at the highest levels of government. He argued that the President is actually rather weak in the U.S. government, being unable to effect significant change without the approval of the Congress, and that in practice the President must rely on a combination of personal persuasion, professional reputation "inside the Beltway

Inside the Beltway

"Inside the Beltway" is a phrase used to characterize parts of the real or imagined American political system. The name refers to the Capital Beltway , a circumferential highway , completed in 1964, that encircles Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States.The phrase is commonly used to...

", and public prestige to get things done.

With his book appearing just before the election of John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

, Neustadt soon found himself in demand by the President-elect, and began his advisory role with a 20-page memo suggesting things the President should and should not try to do at the beginning of his term. During the 1960s, Neustadt continued to advise Kennedy and later Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...

.

Neustadt later founded the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, where he taught as a popular professor for more than two decades, officially retiring in 1989, but continuing to teach there for years thereafter. Neustadt also served as the first director of the Harvard Institute of Politics

Harvard Institute of Politics

Harvard Institute of Politics was created to serve as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy and inspire Harvard students into careers in politics and public service, much as President Kennedy was inspired during his days as a student at Harvard. The IOP also brings together the academic...

 (IOP), which was founded as "a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy that engages young people in politics and public service."

His first wife, Bertha Cummings "Bert" Neustadt, died in 1984; in 1987, he married British politician Shirley Williams, who also served on the faculty at the Kennedy School of Government as Professor of Electoral Politics.
Neustadt was also a recipient of the 1988 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award

Grawemeyer Award

The Grawemeyer Awards are five awards given annually by the University of Louisville in the state of Kentucky, United States. The prizes are presented to individuals in the fields of education, ideas improving world order, music composition, religion, and psychology...

 for Ideas Improving World Order, co-authored with Ernest May.

After his retirement he served as an advisor to Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

 and as Chairman of the Presidential Debates Commission.

One of Neustadt's closest students was a young Al Gore

Al Gore

Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....

. Gore's interest in politics was reignited by a junior seminar taught by Neustadt in 1968 on the presidency. In the course, Gore role-played John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

 during the Cuban Missile Crisis

Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation among the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War...

. Gore arranged to have private tutorials with Neustadt during his senior year, meeting with him two hours weekly.

Neustadt died in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 after complications from a fall. In addition to Shirley Williams, Neustadt left a daughter, Elizabeth, and a granddaughter. His son, Richard, predeceased him in 1995.

Books

• 1960: Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents: The Politics of Leadership (ISBN 0-02-922796-8)
• 1970: Alliance Politics (ISBN 0-231-03066-5)
• 1986: Thinking In Time : The Uses Of History For Decision Makers, co-authored with Ernest May
  Ernest May (historian)
  Ernest Richard May was an American historian of international relations whose 14 published books include analyses of American involvement in World War I and the causes of the Fall of France during World War II...
  
   (ISBN 0-02-922791-7)
• 1999: Report to JFK: The Skybolt Crisis in Perspective (ISBN 0-8014-3622-2)
• 2000: Preparing to be President: The Memos of Richard E. Neustadt, co-authored with Charles Jones, (ISBN 0-8447-4139-6)

External links

• Harvard University Gazette obituary
• Associated Press obituary
• Guardian obituary
• Telegraph obituary
• Neustadt on William Howard Taft
• Neustadt on Calvin Coolidge
• Richard E. Neustadt and Harvey V. Fineberg
  Harvey V. Fineberg
  Harvey Fineberg is President of the Institute of Medicine. He served as Provost of Harvard University from 1997 to 2001, following thirteen years as Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health. He has devoted most of his academic career to the fields of health policy and medical decision making...
  
  . The Swine Flu Affair: Decision-Making on a Slippery Disease. U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. July 1978. (Neustadt and Fineberg's classic study of decision-making under extreme uncertainty.)
• Jones, M. 2003 History in "Foreign Affairs", 1965-2000 http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1310400381&Fmt=2&clientId=79356&RQT=309&VName=PQD&cfc=1 (draws upon and expands on Neustadt and May's uses of history for decision-makers work)