Gunnar Heckscher
Heckscher was born in Djursholm, son of economist Eli Heckscher. He graduated from Uppsala University in 1927 and obtained a PhD 1934. He lectured in political science at Uppsala between 1933 and 1941 and at what later became Stockholm University between 1941 and 1948. He was Dean of the Social Institute of Stockholm 1945-1954. He became a professor in 1948 and worked at both the Social Institute and at Stockholm University.
Joseph Hirsch
The son of physician Charles S. Hirsch and Fannie Wittenberg, he grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and attended Central High School. He was of German-Jewish heritage. At age 17, he entered the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art (now the University of the Arts), where he was instructed in the Philadelphia realist tradition of Thomas Eakins. After graduation, he studied privately with George Luks in New York City (1932–33). Luks was a founder of the Ashcan School and one of "The Eight," a group of painters who depicted everyday scenes of urban life. Luks introduced Hirsch to the Social Realism movement.