Antonin Scalia - Early Life

Early Life

An only child, Antonin Scalia was born in Trenton, New Jersey, on March 11, 1936. His father, Salvatore Eugene Scalia, was an immigrant from Sicily who was a graduate student and clerk at the time of his son's birth, but who later became a professor of Romance languages at Brooklyn College. His mother, Catherine Scalia (née Panaro), was born in the United States to Italian immigrant parents, and worked as an elementary school teacher.

When Antonin was six years old, the Scalia family moved to Elmhurst, Queens, in New York City. Antonin's parents drove the boy to excel in his schoolwork. After completing eighth grade in public school, he obtained a scholarship to Jesuit-run Xavier High School in Manhattan, where he graduated first in his class. Scalia later stated that he spent much of his time on schoolwork, and admitted, "I was never cool."

Classmate and future New York State official William Stern remembered Scalia in his high school days:

This kid was a conservative when he was 17 years old. An archconservative Catholic. He could have been a member of the Curia. He was the top student in the class. He was brilliant, way above everybody else.

In 1953, Scalia enrolled at Georgetown University, where he graduated valedictorian and summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in history in 1957. While at Georgetown, he also studied at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland and went on to study law at Harvard Law School, where he was a Notes Editor for the Harvard Law Review. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law in 1960, becoming a Sheldon Fellow of Harvard University. The fellowship allowed him to travel throughout Europe during 1960–1961.

On September 10, 1960, Scalia married Maureen McCarthy, whom he met on a blind date while he was at Harvard Law School. Maureen Scalia had been an undergraduate at Radcliffe College when the two met, and subsequently obtained a degree in English from the school. The couple raised nine children, five boys and four girls.