Editing Graham Spanier (section)

==Early life and education==
Graham Basil Spanier was born to Rosadele Lurie and Fritz Otto Spanier in [[Cape Town]], [[South Africa]] and came to [[Chicago]] as an infant when his parents immigrated, concerned by parallels they saw between [[apartheid]] in South Africa and fascism in Germany.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Spanier|first=Graham B.|date=1989|title=Bequeathing Family Continuity|journal=Journal of Marriage and Family|volume=51|issue=1|pages=3–13|doi=10.2307/352363|issn=0022-2445|jstor=352363}}</ref> His father had previously escaped [[Nazi Germany]] in 1936;<ref>{{cite journal|title=Bequeathing Family Continuity|publisher=[[JSTOR]]|journal=[[Journal of Marriage and the Family]]|volume=51|issue=1|pages=3–13|doi=10.2307/352363|jstor=352363|year=1989|last1=Spanier|first1=Graham B.}}</ref> much of his father's extended family perished during the [[Holocaust]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Spanier|first=Graham B.|date=1994|title=Coincidence and Injustice|journal=Prairie Schooner|volume=68|issue=3|pages=3–5|issn=0032-6682|jstor=40636666}}</ref>

The family moved to a working-class neighborhood on the south side of [[Chicago]], living there until 1956. Spanier's father worked in a nuts, bolts and screws warehouse loading and unloading trucks; his mother worked in a clerical position. The family moved to the suburb of [[Highland Park, Illinois|Highland Park]], where Spanier graduated from [[Highland Park High School (Highland Park, Illinois)|Highland Park High School]] in 1966.  His father became postmaster of Highland Park in 1962 and retired from that position in 1975.

Spanier has revealed that his father was physically violent with all three of his children. His sister Anita told ''The New York Times'' that Graham received the most violent beatings, leaving him with lifelong complications. "I've had to have four operations to correct serious deformities inside my head from beatings my father gave me," Spanier said. "They had to rebuild me from the inside out."<ref>{{cite web|title=The Trials of Graham Spanier|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/20/magazine/the-trials-of-graham-spanier-penn-states-ousted-president.html|work=The New York Times|date=July 20, 2014|access-date=August 4, 2014}}</ref>

As a teenager, Spanier largely supported himself financially, working part-time jobs at a radio station, a children's clothing store, a legal office, and saving for college by mowing lawns and baby-sitting.<ref>{{cite web|title=You Can Call Me Graham|url=https://static.squarespace.com/static/53055509e4b06b3a5cccdc75/t/532f702ee4b05724b50634ed/1395617838603/YouCanCallMeGraham.pdf|website=Static Square Space|access-date=August 4, 2014}}</ref> He was president of J&A Radio Productions, a [[Junior Achievement]] company that produced a weekly show called "Variety" targeted to Chicago-area youth. Along with Brian Ross, he co-founded a radio news service that covered the [[1968 Democratic National Convention]] in Chicago.

He attended [[Iowa State University]], where he earned a bachelor's degree in sociology in three years (in 1969) and continued his education to earn a master's degree (1971).<ref name="distinguished achievement citation">{{cite web |url=http://www.iastate.edu/~nscentral/releases/2004/apr/awards.shtml |date=April 13, 2004 |title=Iowa State honors alumni and friends in new ceremony |last=Anderson |first=John |publisher=Iowa State University |access-date=January 23, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060906062151/http://www.iastate.edu/~nscentral/releases/2004/apr/awards.shtml <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = September 6, 2006}}</ref> As a graduate student, he taught undergraduate classes in marriage and family sociology while on an assistantship.

During college, Spanier served as a head resident in the residence halls and worked in radio and television at [[WEEF]] (Chicago), [[KASI]] (Ames, Iowa) and [[WOI-TV]] (Ames, Iowa). He had summer jobs as a radio announcer, news director, pizza maker, bank teller and public relations officer. He received numerous honors while a university student for his leadership in student government and campus activities, including the Gold Key of the [[Cardinal Key Honor Society]]. Iowa State later honored him with the Distinguished Achievement Citation and an honorary doctorate (2004).<ref>[[Graham Spanier#cite note-distinguished achievement citation-4|Graham Spanier note 4]]</ref>

Following his graduation from Iowa State, Spanier attended Northwestern University, where he was a  [[Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation|Woodrow Wilson Fellow]], and earned his Ph.D. in [[sociology]] in 1973.<ref name=PSUProfile/>