Early Life
Breen was born in San Antonio, Texas, the son of Walter Henry Breen and Mary Helena (Nellie) Brown Mehl. He spent the first several years of his life living in Texas with his parents. He strove to distinguish himself academically from a young age and continued excelling academically throughout his post-secondary education. He served briefly in the United States Army Air Corps and was honorably discharged.
He received his Bachelor of Arts in mathematics from Johns Hopkins University in 1952. He later claimed he finished four years of coursework in approximately 10 months. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and earned his Master's degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1966. He regularly wore his Phi Beta Kappa key as a zipper pull on the fly of his pants. He joined Mensa in 1958 or 1959, possibly the first American to do so.
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