Neal Evan Cutler, former professor of gerontology and political science at USC, passed away on December 8, 2025 at the age of 82. A pioneer in the field of financial gerontology, he worked to improve retirement and financial planning outcomes for innumerable people and their families.
Neal was born on August 31, 1943 in Chicago, Illinois. Born to a father who hadn’t finished high school and a mother who had to forgo college to start working, the family worked incredibly hard to make ends meet. In pursuit of better opportunities, the family moved to Los Angeles when Neal was eleven years old.
After graduating from Canoga Park High School, Neal received a full scholarship to the University of Southern California, where he majored in political science, served as the coxswain on the men’s crew team, and developed a lifelong love of USC football. His undergraduate thesis examined age, aging, and cohorts in political context. Returning to his Illinois roots, he then received his doctorate in political science from Northwestern University. Neal’s doctoral dissertation examined the maturational versus generational causes and correlates of political attitudes and behavior. After completing his doctorate, Neal became an assistant professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania where he also served as founding director of the Social Science Data Center.
Neal had two sons, Kari and Jori, from his first marriage. Kari was born in Finland during the first of Neal’s two Fulbright teaching fellowships. Neal went on to earn tenure as a professor of political science and gerontology at USC where he taught and conducted research from 1973 to 1991. He loved teaching at the very university where he had thrived as an undergraduate himself.
That his son Kari later went to USC and studied political science as well thrilled him; for the rest of his life, sharing a love of politics, technology, and USC football with Kari brought Neal immeasurable joy. USC also gave him the gift of the love of his life, his wife Donna Crane, whose job working on grants for the university put her in the right building at the right time to meet Neal. They married in December 1985 and welcomed daughter Elizabeth less than two years later. They moved to Scotland in 1988 for Neal’s second teaching Fulbright, this time at Glasgow University. Teaching at the university and exploring Scotland for a year with Donna and baby Elizabeth was one of the happiest chapters in Neal’s life.
Neal and Donna made a new home for themselves in Wayne, Pennsylvania when Neal took on the role of director of the Boettner Institute of Financial Gerontology in 1991. After years of increasing specialization in the intersection of aging, politics, and public policy—including two years away from USC to work for the U.S. Senate Committee on Aging—Neal was ready to focus his work on applied research and building out the concept of financial gerontology. When his work on financial gerontology began, the concept was barely known or understood; today, several colleges and universities offer courses on Neal’s field of expertise. He served in his director role at the Institute from 1991 to 1998 when the role became the Boettner-Gregg Endowed Chair in Financial Gerontology at Widener University, where he taught until 2006.
In 2006, Neal left Widener to be the associate chair of the gerontology program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. From 2007 to 2012, he served as executive director of the Center on Aging at the Motion Picture Television Fund (MPTF), guiding MPTF’s efforts to bring its approach to supporting motion picture and television professionals in their senior years to wider society. He was a fellow of the TIAA-CREF Institute, the Gerontological Society of America, the Employee Benefit Research Institute, and the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education. Neal served on the board of the AARP Foundation from 2008 to 2016 and for over 15 years with Senior Community Services, first as a board member and later as a volunteer advisor.
The impressive body of scholarship that Neal built over six decades of research and analysis include four books, several book chapters, numerous articles, and 25 years writing his column on financial gerontology for the Journal of Financial Service Professionals. Neal is further remembered fondly by colleagues for his exceptional presentation skills – often incorporating his signature sense of humor – which served him well in the hundreds of presentations and talks he gave at national and international conferences throughout his career. He was a founder and academic dean (later serving as president) of the American Institute of Financial Gerontology; his legacy continues through the evolution of AIFG’s transition to the Institute of Financial Gerontology at Erickson School of Aging Studies at the University of Maryland – Baltimore County. Neal received the Cavanaugh Award for Excellence in Education and Training in Aging from the American Society on Aging in 2006.
He is survived by his wife of 40 years, Donna; his children Kari, Jori, and Elizabeth; three grandsons; many beloved friends and family members, and countless colleagues and former students. He was preceded in death by his parents, Philip and Mary, and his sister Eunice.
Obituary courtesy of Cutler family
