Dr. Behling earned a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from UB in 1940 and completed medical school in three years as the result of a directive from the U.S. government, which was in a hurry to train doctors for the war effort. During his internship at Buffalo General Hospital, Dr. Behling was introduced to penicillin, which he used to help combat an outbreak of syphilis in Erie County. Dr. Behling completed his residency at E.J. Meyer Memorial Hospital, the predecessor to the Erie County Medical Center, where he treated patients in the hospital’s varicose vein, syphilis and outpatient dermatology clinics. It was at E.J. Meyer that Behling met his future wife, Rita M. Clancy, a 1940 graduate ofUB’s School of Nursing, who was head nurse on the hospital’s psychiatric ward.