Conant Biographical Note  Theodore Richards Conant was born on
July 13, 1926 in Cambridge, MA as the younger son of James
Bryant Conant and Grace Richards Conant. He attended local
elementary schools - Shady Hill and Brown and Nichols - followed
by a year at the Dublin School in Dublin, NH. High school years
were spent at the Putney School which he left shortly before
graduation to join the U.S. Coast Guard training program in
preparation to enter the Merchant Marine as a radio officer.
After graduating in 1951 from Swarthmore College, with an honors
degree in Economics, he was briefly working as a film technician
in New York City when he was invited to participate in a United
Nations funded film which portrayed the plight of the South
Koreans during their bitter civil war.  Eager to return to Asia
where he had served as a radio officer in the merchant marines
during the tail end of World War II., he had remained in the
Pacific area for a full year volunteering to serve as a radio
officer on weather flights.