 He grew up in Queens, New York, but moved with his family to Merrick, N.Y. in 1962.He was a recognized child prodigy in electronic engineering, able to read and draw schematic diagrams before he could read and write English.Rather than send their only child away to a boarding school for gifted children, his parents arranged for home-schooling, which was continued until Katz' mid-teens when he began auditing college level courses at local universities.