Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader was born on February 27, 1934, in Winsted, Connecticut, to Rose (née Bouziane) and Nathra Nader, both of whom were Antiochian Greek Christians immigrants from Mount Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley in Southeastern Lebanon. After settling in Connecticut, Nathra Nader worked in a textile mill before opening a bakery and restaurant. Ralph Nader occasionally helped at his father's restaurant, as well as worked as a newspaper delivery boy for the local paper, the Winsted Register Citizen. Nader graduated from The Gilbert School in 1951, going on to attend Princeton University. Though he was offered a scholarship to Princeton, his father forced him to decline it on the grounds that the family was able to pay Nader's tuition and the funds should go to a student who could not afford it. Nader graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Arts from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1955 after completing a senior thesis titled "Lebanese Agriculture". After graduating from Princeton, Nader enrolled at Harvard Law School, though he quickly became bored by his courses. While at Harvard, Nader would frequently skip classes to hitchhike across the U.S. where he would engage in field research on Native American issues and migrant worker rights. He earned a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) from Harvard in 1958. Nader identified with libertarian philosophy in his youth, but gradually shifted away in his early 20s. Although Nader acknowledged that he "didn't like public housing because it disadvantaged landlords unfairly", his viewpoint changed when he "saw the slums and what landlords did". After graduating from Harvard, Nader served in the U.S. Army as a cook and was posted to Fort Dix.