An artist all his life, he began at age seven with drawing lessons at the Chicago Art Institute. That was followed by an AB degree from Saint Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota, in Art and an MFA from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.
Neil was employed for forty years at Bucknell University in the Department of Art and Art History.
Since retiring in 1999, he painted full-time in his studio attached to his home on a wooded lot three miles from Lewisburg.
His work has been shown in numerous solo and group shows in museums and galleries in New York City (Fischbach Gallery, Greenberg Wilson Gallery), Philadelphia (Bridgette Mayer Gallery since 2003, and Larry Becker Gallery) and other locations in the U.S. His work is included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Susquehanna Art Museum.