Pioneer Information
Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, Neff established the Mount Olympus Nursery in 1925. He began studies in art and botany at the University of Utah in 1926 and received a landscaping degree from the American Landscape School in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1929. After graduation, he continued to operate the nursery while also working as a practicing landscape architect.
Neff’s early projects include Fairmont Park in Salt Lake City and the mining towns of Dragerton and Sunnydale in Carbon County. A 1950s commission to remodel the Salt Lake Country Club’s golf course set in motion his career as a golf course designer. Neff designed and supervised the construction of public and private golf courses and country clubs including Mountain Dell, Oakridge, Alpine, Bountiful Ridge, and Bonneville sometimes partnering with architect William P. Bell and landscape architect William Howard Neff (no relation) on his designs. Neff’s other projects include the Mormon Temple in Los Angeles and several projects for the National Park Service. Neff was an active member in the American Society of Golf Course Landscape Architects and President of the Utah-Idaho Nurseryman’s Association.