 The son of Lawrence College professors Freeman Alfred Havighurst and Winifred Weter, Havighurst was born in Appleton, Wisconsin and grew up in the Fox River Valley.Havighurst attended Ohio Wesleyan University, where he earned a bachelor of arts degree, and the University of Denver (1924).He attended King's College London from 1925 to 1926, obtained a bachelor of sacred theology from Boston University in 1928 and a master's degree from Columbia University in 1928.