Thomas Friedman
USINFO | 2014-06-20 16:42


Thomas Loren Friedman (born July 20, 1953) is an American journalist, columnist and author. He writes a twice-weekly column for The New York Times and has written extensively on foreign affairs including global trade, the Middle East, globalization, and environmental issues, and has won the Pulitzer Prize three times.

Friedman was born in St. Louis Park, Minnesota – a suburb of Minneapolis – on July 20, 1953. He is the son of Harold and Margaret Friedman. Harold, who was vice president of a ball bearing company, United Bearing, died of a heart attack in 1973, when Tom was nineteen years old. Margaret, who served in the U.S. Navy in World War II and studied home economics at the University of Wisconsin, was a homemaker and a part-time bookkeeper. She was also a Senior Life Master duplicate bridge player, and died in 2008. Friedman has two older sisters, Shelly and Jane.

From an early age, Friedman, whose father often brought him to the golf course for a round after work, wanted to be a professional golfer. He played a lot of sports, and became serious about tennis and golf. He caddied at a local country club and in 1970 caddied for the legendary Chi Chi Rodriguez when the US Open came to town.

Friedman is Jewish. He attended Hebrew school five days a week until his Bar Mitzvah,then St. Louis Park High School, where he wrote articles for his school's newspaper. He became enamored of Israel after a visit there in December 1968, and he spent all three of his high school summers living on Kibbutz Hahotrim, near Haifa. He has characterized his high school years as "one big celebration of Israel's victory in the Six-Day War.

Friedman studied at the University of Minnesota for two years, but later transferred to Brandeis University and graduated summa cum laude in 1975 with a degree in Mediterranean studies. While at Brandeis he roomed with psychologist Steven Fox. Friedman taught a class in economics at his alma mater Brandeis University in 2006, and was a commencement speaker at Brandeis in 2007.

After graduating from Brandeis, he attended St Antony's College at the University of Oxford on a Marshall scholarship, earning an M.Phil. in Middle Eastern studies. He names Professor Albert Hourani among his important academic influences.

Friedman's wife, Ann (née Bucksbaum), is a graduate of Stanford University and the London School of Economics. She is the daughter of real estate developer Matthew Bucksbaum. They were married in London on Thanksgiving Day 1978 and live in Bethesda, Maryland.The couple has two daughters, Orly (b. 1985) and Natalie (b. 1988).

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