Edward Haskell

Edward Fröhlich Haskell (August 24, 1906 – 1986) was a synergic scientist and integral thinker who dedicated his life to the unification of human knowledge into a single discipline.

Haskell was born in Phillipopolis, now Plovdiv, Bulgaria. His mother was a Swiss missionary, Elisabeth Fröhlich, who married an American missionary, Edward Bell Haskell, who himself was born in Bulgaria of American missionary parents. During his childhood, the family traveled widely throughout Europe (as a result he learned to speak six languages), before returning to the United States. Haskell attended Oberlin College in 1929, where he met Willard Quine who became a lifelong friend. After obtaining his B.A. in 1929, Haskell did a year of graduate studies at Columbia University.

While hitchhiking during his days as an Oberlin student, Haskell met two wealthy sisters named Reynolds; they were from Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. He so impressed them with his ideas and originality that they set up a trust fund to help support him. This situation appears to have led Haskell to disdain pursuing his research within the context of conventional employment. He lived most of his life alone in a cramped and cluttered student apartment near Columbia University, purchased for him by his half-brother Douglass Haskell and sister-in-law Helen Haskell.

Haskell maintained close relations with both his full and half brothers and sisters throughout his life. Married twice, in youth and in dotage, he had no children of his own. However, he would indulge his nieces and nephews with his humor, stories, violin, and yodeling. Whether climbing the mountains in the Adirondacks or Alps, Haskell's long stride had his companions running to keep up.

Curious about all aspects of human nature, there was no topic that did not interest him. When other adults would tune out, Haskell would spend time with his young nephews and nieces trying to understand why they were so enthusiastic about the music of this new band, the Beatles. He listened attentively while they played the album "Rubber Soul" to him. Whether he got it or not, he never let on.

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