Al was born in Shanghai, China, where his father was head of the American School. He moved to Indiana and grew up in Minnesota and Ohio.
After starting at Otterbein College, he took a year off to hitchhike and work on an ore freighter as a dishwasher and later as the night cook, but he was often in the engine room and the bridge just watching and trying to figure how things worked. He finished his bachelor's degree at Colgate University. Graduating at the beginning of World War II, he helped teach Navy sailors in the physics training programs at Colgate.
Following this first teaching experience, with the help of Professor Paul Gleason from Colgate, Al was asked to report to Santa Fe, NM (the mailing address was Box 1663). After delivering a truck from the factory to Oklahoma City, he hitchhiked to Amarillo, TX, and then jumped a freight...