Origins of a Legacy

University & Navy Years

Chicago: An Intellectual Feast

hen Ned arrived at University of Chicago, he found himself in a city roiled by crime, desperation, and the Great Depression. Mob gangsters preyed on citizens; the FBI gunned down Public Enemy #1 John Dillinger. Months later, gangster Baby Face Nelson met the same fate. Waves of immigrants and African-Americans were pouring in, seeking better lives but ending up in slums. The Union Stockyards went up in flames—again. [1, 2]

Chicago was nothing like pastoral Oklahoma.

Even so, it was a time of social ferment that inspired immense intellectual discourse and creativity. The year before Ned came, the Chicago World’s Fair: A Century of Progress fueled optimism for the future. [1, 2] When Ned landed there in 1934, the University of Chicago (UC) was an academic powerhouse and the first major university in the nation to enroll women on an equal basis with men. [3]

Ned was invigorated by UC’s game-changing Common Core curriculum, pioneered by Robert Maynard Hutchins in the 1920s. Instead of the traditional method of rote memorization, UC teachers used the Socratic method. [5] The professor and students probed and discussed the flaws and strengths of particular beliefs and societal issues. As they worked their way toward best consensus, contentious discussions and even arguments erupted, but critical thinking skills were honed. [3, 4] Ned was intrigued.

Ned was so invigorated by these teaching methods that he was deemed a Robert Maynard Hutchins Scholar, awarded to the top ten percent of students at the end of their second year. [6] The Socratic Method became the foundation of how Ned inspired others to join his causes.

to top of page

Free Speech & Community

he Common Core curriculum served as a perfect complement for UC’s sociology department, where Ned spent ample class time earning his bachelor’s degree in social science—a choice arising from his influences in Tulsa schools who exhorted the need to engender good citizenry. The department, the nation’s first, arose from the famed “Chicago school” in sociology of thought that elevated social infrastructure and urban ecology over genetics as determining factors in human behavior—a resounding rebuke to the theory of eugenics in favor at the time. [4, 7, 8]

UC’s sociology department was profoundly shaped by Robert E. Park’s work in urban sociology and given scientific heft by Evelyn Kitagawa’s demography research. With Chicago as its unceasing laboratory, students studied the roles that politics, economics, gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity played in how human society functions. [4, 7, 8]

Ned’s social science studies jived well with being a member of Phi Kappa Psi, a fraternity emphasizing integrity, intellect, and service to the community [9]. Yet Phi Kappa Psi would not permit Black or Jewish students to join, a policy Ned resisted. He decided early on to become a lawyer, suitable to his lifelong desire to avenge injustices, and followed a pre-law course track. Being active with the Junior Bar Association further deepened his community involvement. [6]

All the while, he says, he stuck with the system; his ability to confront and agitate remained within the establishment’s bounds; he became an infighter. He fought and succeeded in opening the doors of his fraternity to Jews but fell short of getting a Black admitted. –John Yemma, Nature’s Angry Advocate, Dallas Morning News’ Scene magazine [12]

UC’s sociology department produced minds that shifted paradigms. One of them was Saul Alinsky, an archeology major and criminologist who became a foe of slumlords, robber barons, and industrial magnates. He systematized methods for motivating people who considered themselves powerless into a powerful force. One key of Alinsky’s approach was collective action that went beyond rallies. [10]

Alinsky stepped away from his job at UC’s Institute for Juvenile Research in 1938 to become a full-time social-justice activist, eventually codifying his work into Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer (1971). [10] Ned avidly absorbed Alinsky’s political theory and admired his commitment to a cause.

At the University of Chicago, I had a goal: to make enough money to enable me to dedicate the rest of my life to service. I have managed to do that. [10]

With UC’s Common Core and his sociology major, his dedication to good citizenry, and a love of debate, it was no wonder Ned became president of the UC Political Union, a student-run organization determined to elevate political discourse into the realm of ideas. In true Socratic fashion, Ned brought in a diverse array of speakers, even fascist and communist speakers in spite of his personal views being stridently opposed to totalitarianism. The irony of featuring authoritarians who relied on free-speech suppression to rule at a free-speech event was not lost on Ned. [6, 11]

He even had a Nazi come speak to make sure students were getting all views. He liked getting involved in political actions, and he was very interested in politics. – Genie Fritz [11]

Few knew Ned’s struggle behind the scenes. He did not share his father Ed’s conservative views, nor was he willing to become a businessman as Ed wished. At a lunch in Chicago shortly before graduating from UC, his father informed him there’d be no further family financial support for pursuing a law degree. Even though Ned pursued scholarships to underwrite much of his education, he’d have to work to cover his food and lodgings while studying full-time.

to top of page