I was born of second-generation Jewish parents, Aaron and Celia Davison, in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1939, the second of three children. My family and social environments were warm and supportive and placed great emphasis on academic achievement. Like many boys of my background, I attended Boston Latin School for grades 7 through 12. For generations, this school was the way out of several of the Boston ghettos for the children of parents and grandparents who had immigrated from Europe and who saw a rigorous education as the most reliable way for the kids to make it into the mainstream of American society.

Like many of my Boston Latin classmates, I went on to Harvard, where I earned my BA degree in 1961. I did ...