 He enrolled at Antioch College in 1953, at age 16, and graduated first in his class in 1957.He received his Ph.D. in 1962 from the University of Chicago, and then became an Assistant Professor at Berkeley, and was appointed full professor in 1971 at the age of 34.He served as the chair of the UC Berkeley Department of Geography between 1979 and 1988, and was made a Professor of the Graduate School in 2005, the most senior Berkeley position.