He attended the University of Chicago, where he earned his bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1936. Early jobs included reporter on the "Tulsa Tribune", writer at the University of Chicago Office of Press Relations, and case worker in Chicago's Black Belt for the city's Relief Administration. During World War II, he served for four years in the U.S. Navy as a yeoman on board the destroyer escort USS "Pope" in the Atlantic. His ship was still in the Atlantic when the war came to an end with the surrender of Japan in August 1945.