Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Wachman was the son of migrants from Riga (Latvia) and Minsk (now in Belarus).
He attended Northwestern University in Chicago, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in history.
In 1961, he was asked to become president of Lincoln University, an historically black institution, which was having financial and accreditation problems.
He hired new faculty, increased enrollment and raised money to re-establish the university's academic standing.
[1] Wachman was the author of History of the Social-Democratic Party of Milwaukee, 1897-1910 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1945).