Ed Moses was born in Long Beach, California in 1926, the son of a Portuguese mother who resided with her Scottish and English husband in Hawaii. The couple separated when she was pregnant with Ed, and she came to Southern California. His schooling was erratic: he was home from school recovering from tuberculosis when he was eight and nine years old. He dropped out of high school after a year and a half and joined the Navy.

Moses took his first art class at Long Beach with Pedro Miller, then transferred to University of California at Los Angeles in 1949. Quitting school several times and working various odd jobs, he finally graduated in 1956 and received his Master of Fine Arts degree in 1958. He became a technical illustra...