The following is quoted from a 1998 article by Virginia Burroughs in the Dayton Voice:

Another local artist who worked with one of the WPA's most famous artists and who also had ties to the DAI's recent exhibition is the late Robert Neal. Neal, a well-known African-American Dayton painter until his death in 1989, did not live in Dayton when he was involved with the WPA. A native of Atlanta, he started painting under the guidance of the famous African-American muralist Hale Woodruff - represented in the DAI exhibition - in Atlanta in the 1930's. "He began his studies when he was 15, and his lessons cost 50 cents a day," said Neal's widow, Alberta Smith Neal. "When he was about 18, Mr. Woodruff wanted him to ent...