In The E-Sylum v12 n49 Leon Saryan suggested: "It should be possible to contact the registrar and make an inquiry about Breen's record." I do not know that that is true. My understanding of FERPA (Family Educational Reporting Privacy Act) plus attempts of my own, all point in the opposite direction.

Working on a master's myself in social science, I had a professor who was so inept that several of us attempted to validate that person's credentials. We failed. Though we had the dates of attendances and degrees from a curriculum vitae, the institutions refused to answer even that a degree was ever granted. You must have written permission from the subject to view the records ... and with dead people, that can be difficult.

Also, I noticed that nearly every citation about Breen repeats the same phrase, "... earning his Master's degree from University of California, Berkeley in 1966. ..."

However, I did find this:Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context by Vern L. Bullough, RN, PhD. Binghamton, New York: Hayworth Press, 2002. Page 313-314:

Was Breen's master's degree in music or in sociology or something else?

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:MORE ON WALTER BREEN AT JOHNS HOPKINS(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v12n49a12.html)