Eisner, Robert

Economist Robert Eisner was born January 17, 1922, in Brooklyn, New York. Eisner's mother was an English teacher, and his father was a math teacher and later a high school principal. Eisner studied history at City College of New York, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated in 1940, and went on to earn a master's degree in sociology from Columbia University before enlisting in the Army in the fall of 1942. Stationed in France, Eisner attained the rank of Field Artillery Captain. Eisner attended the University of Paris from 1945 to 1946 before returning home to marry Edith Chelimer in 1946. Eisner had met his future wife while he was in the Army in North Carolina and she was a student at Duke University.

Before and after serving in the military Eisner worked as an economist and statistician for several federal agencies including the Office of Price Administration. Eisner completed his work for the government in 1947 and studied at George Washington University briefly in 1948. Eisner then became involved in union organizing for the Public Workers Union in North Carolina for a short time before using the GI Bill to pursue further graduate education. In 1951 Eisner was awarded a PhD in economics from Johns Hopkins University for his dissertation “Growth, Investment and Business Cycles: A Critique and Development of Some Recent Theories.”

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