Born in Philadelphia, he attended the public schools of the city and graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1936.

He worked as a timber cruiser, state and federal forester, and Civilian Conservation Corps technician and supervisor in West Virginia, Maryland, Wisconsin and New Jersey from 1936 to 1940.

He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1960 to the Eighty-seventh Congress, when he was defeated by Republican Governor Robert Stafford.

[2] He was one of the leading founders of the nonviolent socialist Liberty Union Party of Vermont in June 1970.

He was their party's nominee for United States Senator after failing to obtain the Democratic nomination that year, receiving 0.91% of the vote.