 Born in West Rogers Park, a neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, Nagel attended Senn High School and Central YMCA High School in Chicago.He completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at Northwestern University, receiving a law degree in 1958 and a Ph.D. in political science in 1961.After Nagel's unexpected death, age 67, the "Policy Studies Journal" published, in 2003, a series of articles about Nagel's personal and academic life, entitled "Symposium in Honor of Stuart S. Nagel".