I was born in Rockford, Illinois, in 1922, and received my basic education in the public schools of that city.  My higher education came from the University of Chicago and its law school.  After an interruption for military service, I received a J.D. from the Chicago Law School in 1947 and joined a downtown law firm.  Before graduation I had taken the Foreign Service Examination, so I joined the Service in the Fall of 1947.  After two months in the Foreign Service Institute, I was sent to serve a diplomatic apprenticeship as vice consul in charge of odds and ends at Tientisin, China.  My two years there were enlivened by the Communist seizure of the city in January 1949. 

I returned to the United States, and in 1950 the Department of State sent me to Yale and Cornell to study Chinese and related subjects for three academic years (2-1/3 calendar years).  In late 1952, I joined the "Mainland China" section of the Consulate General in Hong Kong, and nine months later transferred to the political section of our Embassy in Korea.  In January 1955, I was assigned to the OIR in Washington.  I resigned from the Foreign Service in the Fall of 1956.

From my resignation until the Fall of 1958, I was engaged mostly in writing, but had several minor jobs; the least insignificant of these was as research director of a small subsidiary of the Gallup organization in Princeton.  The academic year 1958‑59, I spent as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Thomas Jefferson Center for Political Economy at the University of Virginia.  From the Fall of 1959 to February 1962, I was Assistant and Associate Professor in the Department of International Studies at the University of South Carolina.  From the latter date to September 1967, I was an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Virginia.  During 1967‑68, I was Professor of Economics and Political Science at Rice University. From August 1968 to June 1972, I was Professor of Economics and Public Choice at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.  From June 1972 to June 1983, I was a University Professor (subsequently changed to University Distinguished Professor) at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.  From June 1983 until August 1987, I was the Holbert R. Harris University Professor at George Mason University.  Beginning the  Fall of 1987, I became  the Karl Eller Professor of Economics and Political Science at the University of Arizona.  In 1999 I became Professor of Law and Economics at George Mason University.

From the founding of the Public Choice Society, I have been a member of the Board and Secretary, and am a past President.  In the Fall of 1970, I was elected a member of the Council of the American Political Science Association for a two‑year term.  In 1978, I was elected President of the Southern Economic Association.  Although it has nothing to do with my professional life, the fact that I am a member of the Board of Directors of Dodger Holding Company, Inc., a small Iowa corporation, may contribute to my knowledge of practical economics.