CREVE COEUR, Mo. – Dr. Harriet McNeal, 95 years old and a 56-year former resident of Terre Haute, Indiana, made the great leap into the mystery on April 15, 2024, in Creve Coeur, Missouri. She was born on July 26, 1928, in Highland Park, Illinois, to parents Julia and Dr. Morley McNeal.

Harriet was a great spirit – generous, vivacious, brilliant, joyful. She loved deeply and listened deeply, and was curious about everything and everyone. Most of all she loved beauty: the beauty of the natural world, a blue sky, art, music (especially opera), theater, gardens, and a good glass of wine and conversation. This love of beauty was true to the last.

She earned a doctoral degree from Columbia University as a single mother with three children, with a focus on the art of the Italian Renaissance. She was an Art History and Humanities professor at Indiana State University for thirty years, from 1967 until her retirement. She was proud of developing courses on the history of women artists and on historic preservation, as well as teaching more traditional subjects. She loved working with students, and she was awarded ISU’s Caleb Mills Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1982. Her books include a 2-volume study of the Renaissance sculptor Michelozzo and a history of the Terre Haute architect Juliet Peddle.

She adored Italy, where she spent part of every year, and also Terre Haute. She worked hard for the good of her city: for the arts through her support for the Swope Art Museum and for Arts Spaces, for her neighborhood through her work with the Farrington’s Grove Historic District, for abused women through the Terre Haute Council on Domestic Abuse, and through the Eugene V. Debs Foundation as a board member for decades. She hosted many gatherings for visiting ISU speakers at her Victorian house in Farrington’s Grove. She was also a member of the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Terre Haute.

She traveled widely, including trips throughout the United States and more than 30 countries. In her late 40’s she rode a 10-speed bicycle for the first time, and then rode her bike all over Indiana, New Zealand, Switzerland, Italy, Eastern Europe, and many other places. Even in her later years, nothing made her happier than a drive through the countryside, admiring trees and old houses.

She is survived by her son James McNeal; daughters Julie Caplow and Florence Caplow; stepdaughter Deborah Caplow; grandchildren Reed McNeal, Morley McNeal, Jennifer Wiscons, Nick Wiscons, and Alice Caplow-Sparks; many great-grandchildren; one great-great-grandson; and many, many dear friends, in Terre Haute and around the world.

Her family is deeply grateful to her loving caregivers in the last few years, particularly Melissa Strange and Mike Sinn in Terre Haute, the caregivers at Dolan Homes, and to Bristol Hospice of Eastern Missouri.

Donations can be made in her memory to Wabash Valley Art Spaces, the Eugene V. Debs Foundation, or the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Terre Haute.

There will be a Celebration of Life in Terre Haute, planned for June 23, 2024. Details to follow.

“My country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world.” -Eugene V. Debs