Larry Seigle arrived at Carleton College in September 1962 hoping to further his study of law and psychology. His father was a Philadelphia dentist and his mother worked in advertising.

At high school, he exhibited all the virtues of a model student. He was elected student association representative, he belonged to the soccer squad, the gym team, the poetry club, the jazz club and the youth interest club (a discussion group).

In his application to Carleton, he boasted: “I received two awards for service in the student council. I was also a National Merit Semi-finalist.”

One of his references gave him top marks for industry, reliability and emotional stability, but only the classification “good” for leadership and personal appearance.

He wrote to the Carleton authorities in February 1962 explaining why he wanted to join their campus:

When I was two and one half years old my mother was forced to go back to work, and my elder sister and I were sent to a nearby nursery school. A year later I began attending a cooperative progressive school outside the city. I stayed at this school until I was ‘graduated’ from the sixth grade at age 11.

That summer my parents divorced and both my sister and I decided to live with my mother who re-married several years later.

After leaving the sixth grade, I spent two years at a local junior high school, and then entered Central High School which, along with Girls’ High School, offers the only opportunities available to superior students in the Philadelphia public school system. I expect to graduate from Central this June, and enter college in September.

During the summers of 1959 and 1960 I attended a work camp in Vermont. The camp was devoted to community service and while participating in several of its projects I learned to appreciate the satisfaction which comes from working with, and for, others.”

In September 1962 the Philadelphia Inquirer received a news release from Carleton informing that “Mr. Larry Seigle, son of Dr. and Mrs. Daniel Seigle, was newly-enrolled in a freshman class of 436 students.

“Classes began on September 24 following a week of indoctrination which included numerous tests, luncheons, meetings with the College Deans, and a welcome by Carleton's president John W. Nason.”

In 1965, without explanation, Seigle transferred from Carleton to the University of Minnesota in St. Paul. The timing of this ties in with Dean Richard Gilman’s statement that “our people” were “plugged into” the SWP in the “Twin Cities.”

It was about the time of his transfer that Seigle married Barbara Matson and they both became active SWP members.

By 1968 the Carleton authorities had a new mailing address for both of them — 873 Broadway, New York. It was the national headquarters of the SWP where Joseph Hansen was in charge.