Charles Hall, a strapping (6 ft. 4 in., 210 lbs.) farm boy from Murrysville, Pa., graduated from high school at 18, third in his class, president of the student council, a two-letterman in basketball. He entered the University of Pittsburgh in 1959, when Pitt inaugurated its year-round trimester calendar. Last week, five years after Hall left high school, Pitt Chancellor Edward H. Litchfield draped the academic robes of a Ph.D. in mathematics around his husky young shoulders.
Hall not only enrolled in all three 15-week semesters (only two are required to remain in good standing) but also piled...