Frederic Pryor
Frederic L. Pryor (born 1933) is an American Senior Research Scholar of Economics at Swarthmore College, widely known for his role in a noted Cold War spy-swap, subsequent to the 1960 U-2 incident.
Cold War incident
In August, 1961, Pryor was arrested and held without charge by the East German police. He had been taking graduate courses in East European studies at the Free University of West Berlin since 1959. On February 10, 1962, Pryor was freed at Checkpoint Charlie just before American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers was swapped for Soviet KGB Colonel Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher (a.k.a. Rudolf Ivanovich Abel) at the Glienicke Bridge between West Berlin and Potsdam, East Germany,[1][2] due to the efforts of James B. Donovan.
In popular culture
Pryor's involvement in this incident is dramatized as a subplot in the 2015 film Bridge of Spies, in which he is portrayed by Will Rogers with Tom Hanks as Donovan. Pryor praised the movie but mentioned that the filmmakers "took a lot of liberties with it".[3]
Academic history
- B.A. Chemistry, 1955, Oberlin College
- M.A., Economics, 1957, Yale University
- Ph.D., Economics, 1962, Yale University with courses at the Free University of West Berlin, 1959–1961
Career
- Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Michigan, 1962–1964
- Research Staff Economist, Economic Growth Center, Yale University, 1964–1966
- Visiting Associate Professor of Economics (part-time), Lincoln University, 1967
- Swarthmore College: Assistant and Associate Professor, 1967–1972
- Visiting Associate Professor of Economics, International Development Research Center, Indiana University, 1969
- Swarthmore College: Professor of Economics, 1972–1998
- Visiting Fellow, Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 1972–1973
- Visiting Professor, Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, 1977–1978; 1982
- Swarthmore College: Acting Chair, 1980–1981; 1983–1984; 1988–1989
- Visiting Professor, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris, 1981
- Visiting Scholar, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, 1989–1990
- Guest Scholar, Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., 1993–1994
- Consulting economist to the World Bank 1998-2001.
- Swarthmore College: Senior Research Scholar, 1998–present
- Visiting Scholar, Max-Planck-Institut zur Erforschung von Wirtschaftssystemen, Jena, 2004
References
- ↑ "Abel for Powers". TIME. February 16, 1962. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
- ↑ Wicker, Tom (10 February 1962). "Powers is Freed by Soviet in an Exchange for Abel; U-2 Pilot on Way to U.S.". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
- ↑ Economist Frederic Pryor Recounts Life as a 'Spy', swarthmore.edu, access date 30 December 2015
External links
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