Wahrhaftig was born and raised in Fresno, California. He earned a bachelor's degree in geology at Caltech in 1941, and a Ph.D. in geology at Harvard in 1953. He worked for the US Geological Survey (USGS) as a field geologist from 1941 until his death; the bulk of his USGS work was in Alaska. Starting in 1960, he also taught in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of California, Berkeley. During his tenure at Berkeley, he started his researches in the Sierra Nevada. When heart issues began to affect his physical activities in the mid-1980s, he shifted his research to the nearby California coast range. His interest in environmental issues led to him taking the position of Chair and Director of the new Environmental Sciences interdepartmental undergraduate major in 1975. He retired from UC Berkeley in 1982.