After graduating from Amherst College, he went to Iraq to teach and coach at Baghdad College. When he returned to the United States, he did graduate work in philosophy and theology at Fordham University, receiving a Masters degree. A conscientious objector during the war in Vietnam, he did his alternative service in New York City at Central Harlem Family and Community Services, and then, in the 70s, worked as a journalist and at Mobilization for Youth Legal Services, a branch of the federal anti-poverty program.