hille was born in new york city. his parents were both immigrants from sweden who separated before his birth. his father, carl august heuman, was a civil engineer. he was brought up by his mother, edla eckman, who took the surname hille. when einar was two years old, he and his mother returned to stockholm. hille spent the next 24 years of his life in sweden, returning to the united states when he was 26 years old. hille entered the university of stockholm in 1911. hille was awarded his first degree in mathematics in 1913 and the equivalent of a master's degree in the following year. he received a ph.d. from stockholm in 1918 for a doctoral dissertation entitled "some problems concerning spherical harmonics".