In high school, Wesley W. Spink read extensively and was an outstanding football player. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Superior for one year and then, with the aid of a football scholarship, transferred to Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. There he graduated in 1926 with a degree in chemistry. In 1925 he served, for the summer, as the pastor of a community church in South Dakota. From 1926 to 1928 at Nebraska's Doane College he was instructor in economics and public speaking and also coached football and track. During the summer of 1927 he attended the Chicago Theological Seminary. He bought stocks with his salary from Doane College. In autumn 1928, one year before the Crash of 1929, he sold his stocks for a substantial gain and enrolled in Harvard Medical School, where after one year he was awarded a scholarship. After graduating in 1932 with an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, he was for 18 months from 1932 to 1933 a medical intern and for 3 years from 1933 to 1936 a medical resident at Boston City Hospital. During these years he was influenced by Hans Zinsser and George Minot and co-authored a number of papers with his supervisor Chester Keefer.
