Urie Bronfenbrenner was born in Russia in 1917 and came to the United States at the age of 6. He went to high school in Haverstraw, New York, and completed a double major in psychology and music at Cornell University in 1938. He received a master's degree in education from Harvard University in 1940 and a doctorate in developmental psychology from the University of Michigan in 1942. After completing his doctoral work he was inducted into the U.S. Army, where he served as a psychologist in the Army Air Corps and the Office of Strategic Services. After his military service he worked briefly as a research psychologist for the VA Clinical Psychology Training Program, before returning to the University of Michigan as an assistant professor of psychology. Two years later, in 1948, he accepted a faculty position in Human Development, Family