Early Life and Education
John Thomas (Tom) Schieffer was born in Fort Worth, the youngest child of the late John E. Schieffer and the former Gladys Payne, both originally from Austin. His father was the managing partner of a construction company. His mother stayed home to rear the children.
In addition to his brother, Bob, Schieffer has a sister, Sharon Schieffer Mayes. She is a retired teacher and school administrator who taught science for seventeen years before becoming the vice principal of Dunbar High School in Fort Worth. Sharon Mayes eventually became the high school principal at Keller High School at a time when only 2 percent of the principals in Texas' largest high schools were women. She also had a successful career as an Administrator in the Keller Independent School District.
He grew up in Fort Worth attending public schools, and graduated from Arlington Heights High School in 1966. Schieffer attended the University of Texas at Austin, receiving a B.A. degree in 1970, having majored in government and minored in history, and a masters degree in international relations in 1972. His master's thesis was entitled, "An Examination of the Nuclear Weapons Debate in India." The thesis correctly predicted that India would explode a nuclear device in 1974 and pursue the acquisition of nuclear weapons as the result of the security threat presented by China.
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