Editing Phil Ochs (section)

=== Education and journalism: 1956–1961 ===
From 1956 to 1958, Ochs was a student at the [[Staunton Military Academy]] in rural Virginia. After graduating, he returned to Columbus and enrolled at [[Ohio State University]].<ref>Schumacher, pp. 26–28.</ref> Unhappy after his first quarter, 18-year-old Ochs took a leave of absence and traveled to Florida, where he was jailed for two weeks for sleeping on a park bench in Miami, an incident he would later recall:

<blockquote>Somewhere during the course of those fifteen days I decided to become a writer. My primary thought was journalism ... so in a flash, I decided—I'll be a writer and a major in journalism.<ref>{{Cite AV media notes |author=Phil Ochs |last2=Doggett |first2=P. |year=2001 |title=All the News That's Fit to Sing/I Ain't Marching Anymore |type=CD reissue |publisher=Elektra |id=8122 73564-2}}</ref></blockquote>

[[File:Bob Gibson c 1960 (JJH).jpg|thumb|80px|Folk singer [[Bob Gibson (musician)|Bob Gibson]] was a major influence on Ochs' writing.]]

Ochs returned to Ohio State to study journalism and developed an interest in politics, with a particular interest in the [[Cuban Revolution]] of 1959. At Ohio State, he met [[Jim Glover]], a fellow student who was a devotee of [[folk music]] and whose father was a socialist. Glover introduced Ochs to the music of [[Pete Seeger]], [[Woody Guthrie]], and [[the Weavers]]. Glover taught Ochs how to play guitar, and they debated politics.<ref name="Acoustic-Sonny"/> Ochs began writing newspaper articles, often on radical themes. When the student paper refused to publish some of his more radical articles, he started his own underground newspaper called ''The Word'', as well as writing for the satire magazine, ''[[Sundial Humor Magazine|The Sundial]]'', with fellow classmate [[R. L. Stine]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-04-28 |title=Phil and Me |url=https://celebratingphilochs.com/phil-and-me/ |access-date=2023-06-27 |website=Celebrating Phil Ochs |language=en}}</ref> His two main interests, politics and music, soon merged, and Ochs began writing topical political songs. Ochs and Glover formed a duet called "The Singing Socialists",<ref name="uncut">{{cite news|title=The Power and the Glory|last=Houghton|first=Mick|author2=Allan Jones|date=March 2011|work=Uncut}} Page 60.</ref> later renamed "The Sundowners", but the duo broke up before their first professional performance and Glover went to [[New York City]] to become a folksinger.<ref>Schumacher, pp. 33–41.</ref>

Ochs' parents and younger brother had moved from Columbus to [[Cleveland]], and Ochs started to spend more time there, performing professionally at a local folk club called Farragher's Back Room. He was the opening act for a number of musicians in the summer of 1961, including the [[Smothers Brothers]].<ref>Schumacher, pp. 41–42.</ref> Ochs met folk singer [[Bob Gibson (musician)|Bob Gibson]] that summer as well, and according to [[Dave Van Ronk]], Gibson became "''the'' seminal influence" on Ochs' writing.<ref>Schumacher, p. 43.</ref> Ochs continued at Ohio State into his senior year, but was bitterly disappointed at not being appointed editor-in-chief of the college newspaper, and dropped out in his last quarter without graduating. He left for New York, as Glover had, to become a folksinger.<ref>Schumacher, pp. 44–45.</ref>