[4] After four years[5] at Erasmus Hall High School, from which he graduated,[1] Englebardt enlisted on November 23, 1943, in the United States Army as a private, serving in World War II.
[1] Englebardt also prepared and wrote a study on the hazards of smokeless tobacco that was published in 1990 by Major League Baseball.
Speaking at Quinnipiac University in 2001, Englebardt confessed his career as a freelance writer, a role in which he had never previously envisioned himself, had begun by happenstance.
He felt that familiarity and a personal connection with a subject led to the best work, with good story ideas coming from "[t]hings you hear about, read about, and you see.
"[1] In 2010, he was interviewed by PBS regarding corporate takeovers by private equity firms and their negative impact on worker pensions, drawing on his own experience as a former employee of Reader's Digest.