Born in Columbus, Ohio; grew up and went to school in Westerville, Ohio, graduating from Westerville (South) High School in 1962; alumnus of The Ohio State University (B.A. 1966; M.A. 1968; Ph.D. 1971); moved to California in 1975 after a four-year stint as Chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Evansville (Indiana); retired in 2004 as Professor Emeritus, Price School of Public Policy, University of Southern California.