His father Ronald was a physician, his mother Annie (Parham) a teacher and administrator in the New York City public school system.
He attended the Bronx High School of Science, where he embraced the radical politics of the day, taking part in protests and writing articles in left-leaning student publications.
He was featured in Robert Rossner's book "The Year Without an Autumn: Portrait of a School in Crisis" (1969), which chronicled the 1968 New York City teacher strike and its fallout.