Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan on June 27, 1933, I spent my early years in Ann Arbor, Los
Angeles, and St. Louis. After entering the Society of Jesus, I received my undergraduate
education at St. Louis University and Spring Hill College.
My graduate work in chemistry was carried out at Loyola University in Chicago, with the aid of a
National Science Foundation fellowship, with the reception of a Ph.D. 1962.
The next four years were spent in the study of theology in Toronto, Ontario, with ordination in
1965. During this time I started spending the summers doing research in natural products
chemistry at the National Research Council in Ottawa. This research was continued over the next
twenty years, with only a few breaks.
At the end of the theological studies, I spent a post-doc at the Institut de Biologie Physico-chimique in Paris in the laboratory of Marianne Monago- Grunberg, doing nucleic acid chemistry.
In 1967, I commenced two years of teaching at Regis College in Denver, followed by moving to
Fairfield University.
During the subsequent years, I have taken four sabbaticals, all spent at l'Université Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France, doing research on the biosynthesis of terpenoids by plants and microorganisms.