Jeffrey Epstein spent the 1970s moving from an unfinished academic career through a brief stint as an elite-school teacher to a rapid climb on Wall Street. The record below relies on court exhibits, corporate filings, school archives, and contemporaneous press.
Timeline
Student Years, Europe Interlude (1969 - 1974)
Epstein entered Cooper Union in fall 1969 on a full scholarship but withdrew after four semesters, transcripts filed in the 2008 Palm Beach case confirm no degree.1 He enrolled at NYU Courant in spring 1971, focusing on differential equations, yet left in June 1974 with grades but no diploma.2
During a six-week 1971 trip to London and Paris, he told later interviewers he played piano at a private gathering of cellist Jacqueline du Pre, where Anglo-French financier Sir James Goldsmith was present.3 The claim appears only in Epstein's own 1996 deposition, travel-stamped passport pages entered as exhibits verify the trip but not the encounter.
Dalton Tenure, Network Formation (1974 - 1976)
Headmaster Donald Barr hired Epstein to teach at Manhattan's Dalton School in September 1974 despite the missing degree, citing "exceptional mathematical talent" in a memo preserved in Dalton's personnel archive.4 Barr, an OSS veteran and father of future Attorney General William P. Barr (then with the CIA's Office of Legislative Counsel), maintained intelligence ties noted in his obituary.4
Epstein's classes mixed physics problem-sets with college-level calculus, and he proposed a combined track-and-math club that met off-campus. Former students later told The New Yorker he attended parties where alcohol flowed and paid extra attention to female seniors.5 No complaint appears in Dalton's disciplinary ledger, but yearbook photos show him at May 1975 gatherings.
A parent—identified in Bear Stearns HR notes as "Schonhorn"—requested Epstein tutor his son, which led to an introduction to Bear Stearns executives Alan C. Greenberg and James "Jimmy" Cayne in early 1976.6
Bear Stearns Rise (1976 - 1980)
Epstein started on Bear Stearns' derivatives desk in August 1976 as an assistant to floor trader Douglas Schonhorn at $24k a year plus a 10 percent commission split.6 Internal promotion letters entered in the 2009 New York State litigation trace a steep ascent and by June 1978 he was officially a "rep-client liaison" for ultra-high-net-worth accounts, recognized for structuring options around novel IRS § 954 treaties.
Greenberg's 12 December 1979 memorandum to the compensation committee nominated Epstein for "special limited partnership" status, citing "outsized contribution" in non-public placement deals. Partnership papers executed 2 January 1980 granted him a 1.3 percent profit share and access to the firm jet for client trips.8
Bear Stearns compliance files logged at least seven accounts tied to offshore trusts in the Netherlands Antilles—an early marker of the opaque vehicle style that would later dominate Epstein's finances.8
Evidence Weighting & Gaps
Epstein closed the decade at thirty-seven as a limited partner of a top brokerage, armed with high-net-worth contacts initially reached through Dalton parents and reinforced by tax-driven dealmaking skill. The patterns—recruitment through elite gatekeepers, cultivation of teenage social spheres, and preference for opaque financial structures—were already visible.