Arthur David Ecker (1913-2006) grew up in the city of New York and graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College in 1931 and received his medical degree from The Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1934. After an internship in New Hampshire in 1934 and 1935, Dr. Ecker completed a fellowship in Neurology and Neurosurgery at the Mayo Clinic from 1935 to 1939 and earned a PhD in Neurology from the University of Minnesota in 1939. He was the first neurosurgeon in Syracuse, and in 1939, he joined the faculty of the Syracuse University College of Medicine, which later became Upstate Medical University, and founded the Department of Neurosurgery at the Hospital of the Good Shepherd in Syracuse. He had the rank of Major in the U.S. Army during World War II and served as the Chief of the Neurosurgical Section of the 52nd General Hospital for 20 months before assisting the 158th General Hospital, 7th General Hospital, and 117th General Hospital from 1942 to 1945.

During his career, Ecker published two books on the topic of cerebral angiography and more than 120 professional articles. He also donated his extensive collection of more than 800 historical medical books, many gathered while he was stationed in England, to the Health Sciences Library at Upstate Medical University in 1996. A portrait of Dr. Ecker was painted by a British artist named Herbert Gursenner in 1944, while Dr. Ecker was stationed overseas during World War II. Due to wartime shortages, the painting was done on burlap instead of canvas and the paints used were boat paints and linseed-oil based house paints. The painting was unveiled at SUNY Upstate in 1996. Dr. Ecker's wife of 68 years, Marcia Muriel Ecker, passed away in 2004. Dr. Ecker passed away in 2006 and was survived by his two children, Jonathan and Sandra (Kaplan).