Christopher McCandless: Encyclopedia II - Christopher McCandless - Childhood & Education

Christopher McCandless - Childhood & Education

McCandless grew up in well-to-do family in the affluent Washington, DC suburb of Annandale. His father, Samuel Walter McCandless, a former rocket scientist and one time bigamist, ran a lucrative consulting firm with Chris's mother, Billie McCandless (nee Johnson). Both parents came from working class backgrounds and worked long hours to provide a life of luxury for Chris and his sister Carine—a fact that Chris would one day look upon with scorn, citing what he saw as the hypocrisies of their materialist existence.

Chris was a smart, hard-working student who excelled in both academics and athletics. Once, during his senior year in high school, he announced to his family that he had no intention of going to college. He had decided, instead, to pursue his goal of serving humanity rather than working for material wealth. His parents convinced him that higher education would better enable him to accomplish his goals, and Chris enrolled at Emory University in Atlanta, where he was a model student. In addition to getting straight A's, he was a regular contributor to his school's newspaper and was offered a place in the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa honor society.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Childhood & Education", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki