1943-1946 Post High School Education
1943
Glen Tetley graduated from Wilkinsburg High School.
Right before high school graduation, Miss Ruth Wischmeyer (Tetley's English and Drama teacher) suggested Tetley attend an American Ballet Theatre performance in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There, he saw choreographer Anthony Tudor’s "Romeo and Juliet" performed by American Ballet Theatre and decided he wanted to become a dancer.
Glen Tetley wearing his high school graduation cap and gown.
1943
Tetley was chosen for the V-12 Navy College Training Program, a program designed to supplement the force of commissioned officers in the United States Navy during World War II. The V-12 program's goal was to produce officers and sought out bright and technically trained personnel in fields such as engineering, foreign languages, and medicine. Tetley attended Franklin and Marshall College for two years in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for the pre-medical program and the naval training at the College. Tetley never had active service following the V-12 program.
Portraits of Glen Tetley in Naval uniform. Most likely taken while Tetley was in the V-12 Navy College training program between 1943-1945.
1945
World War II ends. Tetley left for New York City and had a serendipity encounter with choreographer Jerome Robbins who was at the Martin Beck Theater rehearsing the broadway musical "On the Town". Tetley was cast and this was the start to his professional dancing career!
Glen Tetley (center) performing in the broadway musical "On the Town" in 1945. Choreography by Jerome Robbins.
1946
Tetley was accepted into Columbia Medical School, but did not attend. He transferred to New York University to study dance. Tetley’s father, a businessman employed locally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as a Manager at Lumberman’s Mutual Insurance (later becoming Vice President of Lumberman’s Cleveland Ohio office), had encouraged him to become a doctor.
