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Born in Naugatuck, Connecticut in 1884, George Burton Hotchkiss served as a New York University School of Commerce faculty member for over 40 years and pioneered advertising education in America. Hotchkiss graduated from Yale as an English major with a B.A. in 1905 and an M.A. in 1906. He originally wanted to teach English literature and write poetry, but instead he became one of the foremost experts on marketing, advertising, and business writing of his time.

Hotchkiss joined the NYU faculty in 1908 when he took a teaching position at the School of Commerce, embarking on a 42-year career at the University. During his early years at NYU, Hotchkiss worked part-time as a reporter for the New York Sun, and as a copywriter for the George Batten Company, which later became the firm Batten, Barton, Durstine, and Osborne. In 1915 Hotchkiss established a Department of Advertising and Marketing at NYU, marking the first time in the school's history that "advertising" appeared in a department name. He would serve as the department's chairman for 20 years. Hotchkiss authored a number of widely known books on advertising and related subjects, including Advertising Copy (1924), An Outline of Advertising (1933), and Milestones of Marketing (1938). Hotchkiss also co-authored many other advertising books, such as Advertising, Its Principles and Practice (1915), a pioneer teaching text in the field. Teachers used Hotchkiss' books as textbooks and copied his teaching methods, testifying to his profound influence in advertising education and business writing. Hotchkiss served as president of the National Association of Teachers of Advertising in 1922, and as a member of many other organizations, including the American Marketing Association, Beta Gamma Sigma, Alpha Kappa Psi, the Author's Club (London), the Marshall Chess Club, and the Andiron Club (at NYU). In 1933 the NYU Chapter of Alpha Delta Sigma, a national advertising fraternity, named itself the "George Burton Hotchkiss Chapter." Hotchkiss also received the Advertising and Selling Silver Medal Award for his distinguished service to advertising education in 1948.

Professor Hotchkiss recognized the value of advertising as an important phase of business education and instilled in his students the value in seeing advertising in its relation to the whole process of market distribution, as well as its social and economic functions. Hotchkiss retired from NYU in 1950 as a highly respected and often consulted advertising educator. He held the title of professor emeritus until his death in 1953.