Fred Warner Neal; Founded International Relations Program

Fred Warner Neal, 81, expert on Russia who founded the international relations program at the Claremont Graduate School. Born in Northville, Mich., and educated at the University of Michigan, Neal began his career as a foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. He taught briefly at the University of Colorado and UCLA before joining the Claremont faculty in 1957. After creating the international relations program of study, he headed the department for many years. Neal wrote several books about the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, including “Detente or Debacle: Common Sense in U.S.-Soviet Relations” in 1979, “A Survey of Detente--Past, Present, Future” in 1977, and “War and Peace in Germany” and “Yugoslavia and the New Communism” in 1962. In 1990, he became the first American to receive Yugoslavia’s highest civilian honor, the Order of the Yugoslav Flag With Golden Wreath. On Thursday in Claremont of injuries sustained in an automobile accident.