Editing Timothy Leary (section)

== Early life and education ==
Leary was born in [[Springfield, Massachusetts]], an [[only child]]<ref name=Mansnerus>{{cite news |last=Mansnerus |first=Laura |title=Timothy Leary, Pied Piper of Psychedelic 60s, Dies at 75 |series=Obituary |work=The New York Times |date=June 1, 1996 |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9500E0DD1E39F932A35755C0A960958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all |access-date=July 11, 2008}}</ref> in an [[Irish Catholic]] household. His father, Timothy "Tote" Leary, was a dentist who left his wife Abigail Ferris when Timothy was 14.{{sfnp|Higgs|2006|p=17}} He graduated from Classical High School in Springfield.{{sfnp|Greenfield|2006|pp=7, 11–12, 18}}

Leary attended the [[College of the Holy Cross]] in [[Worcester, Massachusetts]], from 1938 to 1940. He received a Jesuit education there, and was required to learn Latin, rhetoric, and Greek.{{Sfn|Greenfield|2006|p=20}} Under pressure from his father, he left to become a cadet in the [[United States Military Academy]]. In his first months at West Point, he received numerous demerits for rule infractions and then got into serious trouble for failing to report rule breaking by cadets he supervised. He was also accused of going on a drinking binge and failing to admit it, and was asked by the Honor Committee to resign. He refused and was shunned by fellow cadets. He was acquitted by a court-martial, but the silencing continued, as well as the onslaught of demerits for small rule infractions. In his sophomore year, his mother appealed to a family friend, United States Senator [[David I. Walsh]], head of the Senate Naval Affairs Committee, who investigated personally. The Honor Committee quietly revised its position and announced that it would abide by the court-martial verdict. Leary then resigned and was honorably discharged by the Army.<ref>Peter O. Whitmer, ''Aquarius Revisited: Seven Who Created the Sixties Counterculture That Changed America'' (NY: Citadel Press, 1991), 21–25</ref> About 50 years later he said that it was "the only fair trial I've had in a court of law".{{sfnp|Greenfield|2006|pp=28–55}}

To his family's chagrin, Leary transferred to the [[University of Alabama]] in late 1941 because it admitted him expeditiously. He enrolled in the university's [[ROTC]] program, maintained top grades, and began to cultivate academic interests in [[psychology]] (under the aegis of the Middlebury and Harvard-educated Donald Ramsdell) and [[biology]]. Leary was expelled a year later for spending a night in the female dormitory and lost his [[student deferment]] in the midst of [[World War II]].

Leary was drafted into the [[United States Army]] and received [[basic training]] at [[Fort Eustis]] in 1943. He remained in the non-commissioned officer track while enrolled in the psychology subsection of the [[Army Specialized Training Program]], including three months of study at [[Georgetown University]] and six months at [[Ohio State University]].{{sfnp|Greenfield|2006|p=65}} With limited need for officers late in the war, Leary was briefly assigned as a [[private first class]] to the [[Pacific War]]-bound [[2d Combat Cargo Group]] (which he later characterized as "a suicide command ... whose main mission, as far as I could see, was to eliminate the entire civilian branch of American aviation from post-war rivalry") at [[Syracuse Army Air Base]] in [[Mattydale, New York]].{{sfnp|Leary|1983|p=144}} After a fateful reunion with Ramsdell (who was assigned to Deshon General Hospital in [[Butler, Pennsylvania]], as chief psychologist) in [[Buffalo, New York]], he was promoted to [[corporal]] and reassigned to his mentor's command as a staff [[psychometrician]].{{sfnp|Greenfield|2006|p=65}} He remained in Deshon's deaf rehabilitation clinic for the remainder of the war.

While stationed in Butler, Leary courted Marianne Busch; they married in April 1945. Leary was discharged at the rank of [[sergeant]] in January 1946, having earned such standard decorations as the [[Good Conduct Medal (United States)|Good Conduct Medal]], the [[American Defense Service Medal]], the [[American Campaign Medal]], and the [[World War II Victory Medal]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Leary__Timothy.html |title=Timothy Leary |publisher=Pabook.libraries.psu.edu |access-date=May 19, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141028072448/http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Leary__Timothy.html |archive-date=October 28, 2014}}</ref>

As the war concluded, Leary was reinstated at UA and received credit for his Ohio State psychology coursework. He completed his degree via [[correspondence courses]] and graduated in August 1945. After receiving his undergraduate degree, Leary pursued an academic career. In 1946, he received a [[Master of Science|M.S.]] in psychology at the [[Washington State University|Washington State College]] in [[Pullman, Washington|Pullman]], where he studied under educational psychologist [[Lee Cronbach]]. His M.S. thesis was on clinical applications of the [[Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale]].<ref>{{cite web |title=WSU - Myths and Legends |publisher=Washington State Magazine |date=2010 |url=http://wsm.wsu.edu/s/index.php?id=793#a3 |access-date=January 13, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208095736/http://wsm.wsu.edu/s/index.php?id=793#a3 |archive-date=December 8, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1947, Marianne gave birth to their first child, Susan. Their son, Jack, arrived two years later. In 1950, Leary received a [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]] in [[clinical psychology]] from the [[University of California, Berkeley]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Timothy Leary Papers 1910 - 2009 |publisher=New York Public Library |date=2009 |url=http://archives.nypl.org/mss/18400 |access-date=January 19, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160116034624/http://archives.nypl.org/mss/18400 |archive-date=January 16, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> In the postwar era, Leary was galvanized by the objectivity of [[modern physics]];{{sfnp|Leary|2000|p=13}} his doctoral dissertation (''The Social Dimensions of Personality: Group Process and Structure''){{sfnp|Leary|1950}} approached [[group therapy]] as a "psychlotron"{{sfnp|Leary|2000|pp=13–15}} from which behavioral characteristics could be derived and quantified in a manner analogous to the [[periodic table]], foreshadowing his later development of the [[interpersonal circumplex]].