Born in York, Pennsylvania, he spent 16 years employed by Time, and was their bureau chief in Israel.
After college studies he became a journalist in 1954, and, after a number of positions, joined the Los Angeles Times in 1960 and became their Tokyo correspondent.
[3] Neff joined Time magazine in 1965, and, based in Saigon, covered the Vietnam War for two years.
He was then appointed Time's bureau chief in Houston,[3] (where he covered the Apollo Moon landing).
He wrote a retrospective piece in 1995 detailing the change in his pro-Zionist perspective during his years as correspondent in the Middle East.