The product of German, Swiss, and a small amount of Delaware Native American ancestry, Eicher was born in Dayton, Ohio.
Moving to the Ohio State University in Columbus, Eicher helped in the preparation of aviation gasoline components such as triptane, a reference compound, which was sent to the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain.
[citation needed] In mid-1943 Eicher joined the Manhattan Project at Columbia University in New York, working first with Willard Libby (1908–1980), Nobel Laureate in 1960; then with Harold C. Urey (1893–1981), chair of the chemistry department and 1934 Nobel Laureate; with John R. Dunning (1907–1975), dean of engineering; and with Leslie R. Groves (1896–1970), major general, commanding the Manhattan Engineer District.
[4][5][6][7][8] Returning to Purdue University in 1945 for graduate studies, Eicher taught organic technic and qualitative analysis for six years as an assistant instructor.
He became a longtime chapter secretary for the Phi Lambda Upsilon national chemistry honorary, and a member of the research Society of the Sigma Xi.
[12] In 1953 he organized a student and faculty liberal religious club at Miami which became a Unitarian Fellowship and later evolved into the Hopedale Unitarian-Universalist Community.