Maurer was then 12 years of age and spoke no English. He learned the language quickly in school and attended DeWitt Clinton High School, named for the former New York governor and father of the Erie Canal. He then attended New York University and in 1937 earned his M.D. degree from the University of Berne in Switzerland. Maurer, who was of Austro-Hungarian ethnicity, was inducted as a captain into the United States Army Medical Service and participated in the North African Campaign, the invasion of Italy, and the battle of Anzio. His military tenure introduced him to new orthopedic techniques learned from a German surgeon in a captured field hospital. He applied this knowledge to improving the surgical care of Allied soldiers and his subsequent patients in Littlefield. On leaving the military, Maurer accepted a position at the Payne-Shotwell Hospital. He recalled having arrived in Littlefield on the last day of 1945 during a blinding sandstorm.