Early life and education

Class photograph showing Paul Swain Havens as a child. Havens appears in the front row on the far left. 

Paul Swain Havens was born in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, on September 9, 1903. His mother, Ann Elizabeth "Bess" Swain Havens, was a Wilson College alumna, belonging to the class of 1895. His father, Henry Clay Havens, was an instructor of classical languages, and formerly had served as principal of the American University of Beirut, Syria.

Page from Olla Podrida, the Lawrenceville School Yearbook, showing Paul Swain Havens’s academic achievements and interests during his primary education.

Paul attended high school at the Lawrenceville School, where his father taught Greek and Latin. Having come from a family which valued learning, Paul excelled in his studies and participated in various student clubs. During his time at the Lawrenceville School, Paul practiced the leadership skills which would benefit him throughout his life, becoming editor-in-chief of the school's yearbook staff, and director of a student mandolin ensemble. He graduated from the school as "Head Boy" in 1921.

After completing his studies at Lawrenceville, Paul attended Princeton University, following in the footsteps of his father as well as his maternal grandfather. Here, he was selected to Phi Beta Kappa during his junior year, and graduated as valedictorian in 1925. Within the same year, Paul began his studies at the University of Oxford, attending the school as a Rhodes Scholar. He achieved his doctorate in 1928, and was active in the community of American Oxford alumni throughout the rest of his life. This involved serving as editor of the the American Oxonian, an alumni periodical, from 1949 to 1955.