Harold H. Sprout was born in Benzonia, Michigan on March 14, 1901 to George Milton Sprout and Grace Hance Sprout. He grew up in Benzonia with his parents and his sister Chastina (Oberlin class of 1927). After graduating from Benzonia High School he attended Oberlin College where he studied political science and participated in the College band and Conservatory Orchestra. He received his B.A. in political science in 1924. During his time at Oberlin he met Margaret A. Tuttle (Oberlin class of 1925), and the two were married on August 6, 1924. Sprout attended the University of Wisconsin Law and Graduate Schools from 1924 to1925. The couple lived in Cleveland from 1925 to 1927 while Sprout studied law at Western Reserve University and held an assistant professorship at Miami University in Ohio. In 1927 they returned to Wisconsin where Sprout got his PhD in political science and law in 1929.

Harold Sprout accepted a position as assistant professor at Stanford University and taught there from 1929 to 1931. In 1931 Sprout accepted an assistant professorship at Princeton University and he remained there for 38 years. He received his full professorship in 1945 and served as chair of the politics department from 1949-52. In 1952 he was awarded the title of Henry Grier Bryant Professor of Geography & International Relations and was named McCosh faculty Fellow in 1966. Sprout also directed a research program in Princeton University’s Center of International Studies with his wife Margaret, a Research Associate, on the politics of environmental preservation.

Harold and Margaret Sprout worked together on numerous projects and publications that explored the effects of human society and their politics on the environment. A few decades ahead of their time, the Sprouts were some of the first to study the natural repercussions of industrialization. Their publications include The Rise of the American Naval Power, 1786-1918 (1946), The Context of Environmental Politics: Unfinished Business for America’s Third Century (1979), as well as several other books and articles. In 1955 they took three extensive trips to Oxford University to conduct further research.

Sprout retired from Princeton University in 1969, but he and his wife continued publishing and doing research well into their retirement. From 1969 to1980 Sprout held the position of Professor Emeritus of International Relations and Research Associate in International Studies.

Harold and Margaret Sprout had two children, Donald Francis (b. 1933) and Chastina Elisabeth (b. 1936, Oberlin class of 1958).

On December 12, 1980 Sprout passed away in his home in Princeton, New Jersey. He was 79 years old.