Education

Philip Cummings was a natural student, intellectually curious and highly motivated to learn. He read widely on a broad range of topics and actively pursued subjects that interested him through both formal coursework and independent study.

Cummings hoped to complete a PhD in Spanish literature and teach at a college or university, but without financial support from his family, he had to approach his higher education in stages. Whenever his money ran out, he worked as a language teacher long enough to build up funds for his next course of study. And wherever he took classes, he also served as a teaching assistant or tutor to help pay his way.

Circumstances intervened and Cummings never completed his doctorate, but he continued to pursue his varied intellectual interests throughout his life.

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High school: Hardwick (Vermont) Academy, 1924

Undergraduate education:

• Stetson University, DeLand, Florida
  
  
• Université de Dijon, France
  
  
• Universidad de Madrid, Spain
  
  
• Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida;
  BA in Modern Languages awarded June 1929
  

Graduate education:

• Universidad de Madrid, Spain
  
  
• Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont;
  MA in Spanish Studies awarded May 1932
  
  
• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill;
  PhD in Romance Languages not completed
  
  

Hardwick Academy Class of 1924; Philip Cummings 2nd row, 3rd from left. Photo courtesy Hardwick Historical Society.