[1] Hector attended Queen's University, located in Kingston, Ontario, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

[2] While teaching sociology and economics for two years at the academic rank of Instructor at Michigan Agricultural College, Macpherson completed work on his PhD, which he also received from the University of Chicago.

[2] In April 1913, Macpherson was tapped as one of two official Oregon delegates to the congress of the International Institute of Agriculture in Rome.

[3] Following his return, Macpherson penned a series of articles in the Portland Oregonian detailing the specifics and potential cost-savings of cooperation as practiced in Denmark and Germany.

[3] In August 1913, Oregon governor Oswald West again named Macpherson an official delegate to a Congress on Rural Credits and Farm Life, scheduled to be held in Washington, D.C. that same fall.