He was also interested in English and French literature, as well as mineralogy. From the time when he was given a collection of minerals by his grandfather in Germany at the age of five years, he started to collect them. He was especially interested in uranium deposits.
He attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, founded by Felix Adler (professor of political and social ethics) to promote a form of ethical education based on the Ethical Culture movement, whose motto was "deed before creed".
