Born on May 24, 1926 in London, England. He spent his early years in England and France, attending Hawtreys Preparatory School, a boarding school, in England, until his father was compelled to move the family to his estates in Logan County, Ill. in 1939. Michael attended high school at St. Marks Boarding School in Mass., then joined the American Field Service upon his graduation in 1944, where following training he drove an ambulance for the British 8th Army in Italy, and after victory in Europe, was posted for a short time to India. Following the war, Scully graduated from Harvard University, where he participated on the varsity rowing team. He then returned to Ill. before moving east, eventually working as an unpaid farm laborer for Dr. Ehrenfried Pheiffer, a disciple of the German philosopher Rudolph Steiner. Pheiffer was employing Steiner's theories on biodynamic agriculture on his New York farm, and Scully was an eager student, absorbing many of Pheiffer's ideas on organic farming. In Jan. 1951 Scully was drafted, receiving training in intelligence at Fort Holabird, Md., and then was sent to Germany where he did background investigations of German civilians and others. Following his military service, Scully returned to the United States, and purchased a tenant farm from his father near Buffalo, Ill., where he applied the principles of biodynamics and organic farming on his 400 acre farm.
From the description of An interview with Michael Scully / Michael Scully ; Mark DePue, interviewer. 2008. (Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library). WorldCat record id: 245539207
