Biography
Hapgood received a master's degree from Harvard University in 1929 in medieval and modern History. His Ph.D. work on the French Revolution was interrupted by the Great Depression. He taught for a year in Vermont and directed a community center in Provincetown, also serving as the executive secretary of Franklin Roosevelt's Crafts Commission.
During World War II, Hapgood was employed by the Center of Information (which later became the Office of Strategic Services and then the Central Intelligence Agency) and the Red Cross, and also served as a liaison officer between the White House and the Office of the Secretary of the War. After the war, Hapgood began a twenty-year teaching career in the humanities through faculty appointments at Keystone College (1945–1947), Springfield College (1947–1952), Keene State College (1956–1966), and New England College (1966–1967), where he lectured in world and American history, anthropology, economics, and the history of science.
Hapgood married Tamsin Hughes in 1941. They divorced in 1955. In later years he resided in Arizona and Richmond, New Hampshire. While living in Greenfield, Massachusetts, he was struck by a car and died on December 21, 1982. He is survived by two sons, Frederick (born 1942) and William (born 1944), and two grandsons.
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