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.

Contents

• Cold War incident
• In popular culture
• Academic history
• Career
• References

Pryor has worked as an economic advisor in Ukraine and Latvia, was employed as a consultant to the World Bank in Africa, served as a Research Director to the Pennsylvania Tax Commission, and has been a Research Associate at both the Hoover Institution in Palo Alto, Calif., and the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. He has won research grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Council of Soviet and East European Studies, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Receiving a B.A. in chemistry from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. in economics from Yale University, he has occupied teaching or research positions at Yale, the University of California, the University of Michigan, the University of Paris, the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, and several other universities. He joined the Swarthmore faculty in 1967.

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, as a result of negotiations conducted by 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 was "simply at the wrong place at the wrong time," he says. Pryor praised the movie but mentioned that the filmmakers "took a lot of liberties with it".

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