Fred Pohl Earns High School Diploma

Fred Pohl, 89, was awarded an honorary high school degree on August 20, 2009, from Brooklyn Technical High School. Pohl dropped out of high school at the age of 15, during his junior year. “I largely stopped paying attention,” Pohl admitted. His parents were divorcing, and, due to Depression-era financial troubles, he felt he was unlikely to go to college anyway. However, his almost-alma mater is now eager to claim the famous writer as a graduate. Pohl says, “I do sort of wish I’d stuck it out. I like having learned all the stuff I did learn there; I just didn’t like the business of learning.” Pohl speculates that perhaps, if he had finished high school, he might have gone on to spend the rest of his career at American Car and Foundry, instead of writing multiple science fiction classics.