Early Life
Rockwell was born in Bloomington, Illinois, the first of three children of George Lovejoy "Doc" Rockwell and Claire (Schade) Rockwell. His father was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and was of English and Scottish ancestry. His mother was the daughter of Augustus Schade, a German immigrant, and Corrine Boudreau, who was of Acadian French ancestry. Both parents were vaudeville comedians and actors, and his father's acquaintances included Fred Allen, Benny Goodman, Walter Winchell, Jack Benny, and Groucho Marx. His parents divorced when Rockwell was six years old, and he divided his youth with his mother in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and with his father in Boothbay Harbor, Maine.
Rockwell attended Atlantic City High School in Atlantic City, and applied to Harvard University when he was 17 years old. However, he was denied admission. One year later, his father enrolled him at Hebron Academy in Hebron, Maine. He became an avid reader of Western philosophy and socially significant novels, leading him to re-examine the topic of religion. He had initially perceived himself as a devout Protestant, but after reading the Bible numerous times, he perceived religion as a necessary pillar to civilization. He contemplated the possibility of a "total intelligence" existing in the universe, and identified himself as an agnostic. Despite this, he promoted the Christian Identity sect in the 1960s.
In August 1938, Rockwell enrolled at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island as a philosophy major. In his sociology courses, he rejected equality and the idea that man was made by his environment and all human beings had the same potential in life. He debated with fellow students over topics such as social themes in popular novels.
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