William S. Heckscher
From 1918 to 1921, the family lived in the Netherlands while Heckscher's father served as the Weimar Republic's ambassador to The Hague; there, Heckscher enrolled at the Nederlandsch Lyceum. Heckscher pursued his interests in history and Flemish art by spending his off hours studying at the Dutch Royal Library, the Mauritshuis and the Kröller-Müller Museum, but was dismissed from the Lyceum in 1920 for "lack of scholarly potential". After the family returned to Hamburg, Heckscher attended the city's Kunstgewerbeschule, now the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg, but failed a class in ceramics.
David J. Eicher
Eicher grew up in a suburb of the small town of Oxford, with relatively dark skies overhead. He attended Hannah House Nursery School (1966), William Holmes McGuffey Laboratory School (1967–1975, a school for offspring of Miami University employees) and Talawanda High School (1976–1979), where he was involved in band activities. He was also actively interested in American history and in science, leaning toward a career as a doctor.