Novelist, radio scriptwriter, dramatist, mathematician, and aerospace
engineer, Ben Freedman planned one career at Columbia University as a
premedical student, but he was already noted as being gifted in math
(specializing in games and recreational mathematics) and as a
contributor of material to radio comedy programs (from the age of 17!),
including those of
Al Jolson and
Robert Benchley. He went next to Curtiss-Wright
Technical Institute at Glendale, California, earning a degree in
aeronautical engineering.