[2] With two mathematicians, Thomas Bond Sprague and Hermann Amandus Schwarz, as grandfathers, Roland Sprague was also a great-grandson of the mathematician Ernst Eduard Kummer and a great-grandson of the musical instrument maker Nathan Mendelssohn (1781–1852).
[3] After graduation (Abitur) in 1912 from the Bismarck-Gymnasium in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, Sprague studied from 1912 to 1919 in Berlin and Göttingen with an interruption by military service from 1915 to 1918.
In 1921 in Berlin he passed the state test for teaching in mathematics, chemistry, and physics.
[3][4] In 1950 Sprague received a PhD under Alexander Dinghas at the Freie Universität Berlin with dissertation Über die eindeutige Bestimmbarkeit der Elemente einer endlichen Menge durch zweifache Einteilung.
[5] At the Pädagogische Hochschule Berlin, Sprague was from 1949 Dozent, from 1953 Oberstudienrat (senior teacher at a secondary school), and from 1955 Professor.