Neal H. Petersen ’60

Neal came to us from Milwaukee University School, where he was class president and active in several sports. At Princeton he majored in history, joined Cannon, and continued his sports activities at the IAA level. He was known and feared for his legendary wind-up tennis serve.

Neal served two years as a lieutenant in the Army, at Fort Sill, Okla. Following his passion for finding the truth, he earned a Ph.D. in history at Georgetown University. This led to a 24-year career at the State Department, where he rose to become deputy historian. He was instrumental in compiling 17 volumes of Foreign Relations of the United States, the official documentary record of American foreign policy. He then served 10 years with the CIA Historian’s Office, where he authored U.S. Intelligence: An Annotated Bibliography and From Hitler’s Doorstep: The Wartime Intelligence Reports of Allen Dulles. Neal was widely admired for his acuity in U.S. diplomatic history.

In our 50th-reunion yearbook, Neal enumerated (literally) his enthusiasms: 60 years of tennis, 5,000 fish caught, 130,000 stamps collected, 25 years of Washington Redskins games, and many more.

He died Aug. 25, 2018, after a succession of health setbacks. He is survived by his wife, Nancy, and their three children and families. We send our sympathies to them all.