 He attended Hastings High School, graduating in 1955, and then going on to the University of Nebraska, graduating in 1963 with degrees in mathematics, chemistry, and physics.He later obtained a master's degree in mathematics, and in 1966 was hired as a teacher at Butler University in Indiana, where he worked for the next 40 years, teaching nearly every subject in the mathematics department.He officially retired in 1994, but has continued to teach every semester.