His maternal grandparents, Goodman's was from Chisināu, Bessarabia. He be- came a well-known comedy writer for radio personalities such as Jimmy Durante and Red Skelton; and later wrote comedy shows for the new medium of television, inclu- ding My Favorite Martian. Afterwards, while continuing his television career, he also wrote novels with Nancy, including the bestseller Mrs. Mike, translated into dozens of languages, as well as This and No More, The Spark and the Exodus, The Apprentice Bastard, Lootville, and Tresa. Fifty years after writing Mrs. Mike, Ben and Nancy re- turned to this popular work to publish two sequels, The Search for Joyful and Kathy Littlebird. Well into their eighties, they continued to write together, producing two more works, There Was aBoy, There Was aGirl; and Us, ADuography about their own remarkable romance. Ben also wrote what he considered his major lifework, Rescuing the Future, a tome of political philosophy that saw human beings as value makers, valuesas living things, and explored the practical implications of theseconceptualiza- tions for addressing global and interpersonal values conflict. Freedman returned to college in 1966 fulfilling a lifelong dream to become a mathematician. He earned a B.A. from UCLA in 1968, and went on to complete his Ph.D. in Symbolic Logic.Freedman was hired in the Department of Mathematics at Occidental College where he proceeded to teach for 25 years.