Born in
Richmond,
Virginia, he was the son of Jacob and Rachel Brill Ezekiel (who had been a secretary to the
suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt). He had two brothers, Walter Naphtali Ezekiel, a
plant pathologist, and Raphael Ezekiel, a graduate of
West Point, and one sister, Bertha Brill Ezekiel (Topkis). Ezekiel graduated in 1918 from the
Maryland Agricultural College with a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture. He also earned a Master of Science degree in 1923 from the
University of Minnesota and a PhD in economics from the
Robert Brookings Graduate School of Economics and Government. Ezekiel traveled abroad as a
Guggenheim Fellow from 1930 to 1931. Ezekiel married Lucille Finsterwald and they had three children—David, Jonathan, and Margot. He was also the uncle of the Hebrew poet
Yosef Yehezkel. A scholarship in his name was endowed at the
University of Maryland in 1963. ==Select bibliography==