Herman was raised on an 80 acre farm in northern Minnesota with no indoor plumbing or electricity. He had an 8th grade education and minimal social graces. VA records document his WWII combat trauma. From 1945-1949 he searched for a wife through singles publications. Barbara came from a cosmopolitan New York background. She was a concert pianist who had studied in Europe and at Juilliard School of Music. She met Herman through Cupid's Columns and, with four young children, moved to the farm in 1949.