He studied medicine at the Harvard Medical School and graduated in 1934. His residences were served at New York's Bellevue Hospital and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He then went to Europe for further study. Having an interest in aviation, he became Flight Surgeon with the rank of First Lieutenant in Army Medical Corps Reserve. He began studying the problems of high-altitude flight, and in 1938 the Aeromedical Field Laboratory located at Wright Field requested him to develop an oxygen-mask for use in high-altitude aircraft.