Albert Ford Hinrichs, born in 1899, obtained three degrees in economics at Columbia University between 1921 and 1923. Following several years at the New York State Bureau of Housing and Regional Planning, in 1926 he became Associate Professor of Economics and Director of the Bureau of Business Research at Brown University, a position which he held until 1934.

While a member of the Brown University faculty, he made two trips to the Soviet Union. His first trip, in July and August 1930, was as a member of a group led by Professor Seager of Columbia University (under whom Dr. Hinrichs had studied), the first group of American economists to visit that country since 1917. A tour of the countryside had been arranged in advance with Intourist. His second trip, from August to November 1932, had been intended as a full year's sabbatical stay. His plan, for which he obtained permission from the Soviet government before leaving the United States, was to spend four months in Moscow, visit his wife and children in Switzerland at Christmas, and then tour the Russian countryside. But there was famine and popular unrest that year, and the projected tour was not permitted; he even found it difficult to make appointments with officials in Moscow. After rejoining his family, therefore, he did not return to Russia but spent six months in 1933 studying national planning in Italy and other topics.

Following his return to the United States, Dr. Hinrichs was able to apply his research to a book on social and economic planning, which he wrote in collaboration with Lewis Lorin under the auspices of the National Planning Commission in the Department of the Interior. In 1934 he joined the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Department of Labor, where he remained until 1946. Subsequently he held several official, academic, and advisory positions until 1967. He died in 1978.