19 Facts About Frederic Pryor

Frederic Pryor spent the bulk of his career as a member of the Swarthmore College faculty, as a professor of economics.

Frederic LeRoy Pryor and his twin brother Millard were born April 23,1933, in Owosso, Michigan, to Millard H and Mary S Pryor, but spent most of their childhood in Mansfield, Ohio, and graduated in 1951 from Mansfield Senior High School.

Frederic Pryor attended Oberlin College, where he received a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1955.

Frederic Pryor then spent a year in South America and Europe, which included three months living and working on a commune in Paraguay.

Frederic Pryor studied economics at Yale University, where he received a master's degree in 1957, then undertook a doctorate program.

In 1959, as part of his doctorate studies, Pryor went to Berlin, where he was finishing his doctoral thesis and taking classes at the Free University of West Berlin.

Frederic Pryor's cell was directly above an East German torture room.

On February 10,1962, after almost six months of detention, Pryor was freed at Checkpoint Charlie, just before American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers was swapped for Soviet Spy Colonel Rudolf Abel at the Glienicke Bridge between West Berlin and Potsdam, East Germany, as a result of negotiations conducted by James B Donovan.

Frederic Pryor did not want to teach but went to work in academia, as an economics instructor at the University of Michigan until 1964 and as a staff research economist at Yale until 1967.

Frederic Pryor joined the economics faculty at Swarthmore College in 1967; "Swarthmore didn't care" about his imprisonment, Pryor recalled.

Frederic Pryor became a full professor, and chaired the department for three periods in the 1980s.

Frederic Pryor specialized in comparative economics; he retired from active work at the college in 1998, but remained a professor emeritus.

Frederic Pryor published 13 books and more than 130 scholarly articles.

Frederic Pryor 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 was a research associate at both the Hoover Institution in Palo Alto, California, and the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC He twice served as judge of elections, a local elected position in Pennsylvania.

Frederic Pryor won research grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Council of Soviet and East European Studies, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Frederic Pryor served as a trustee at historically black colleges such as Miles College, Wilberforce University, and Tougaloo College.

On March 26,1964, Frederic Pryor married Zora Prochazka, who was an economist.

Frederic Pryor died on September 2,2019, in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, where he had lived the final 11 years of his life.

Frederic Pryor is survived by his son and three grandchildren.