21 Facts About Irving Peress

From 1933 to 1936, Irving Peress was a student at City College of New York, where he was a member of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps.

Irving Peress graduated from the New York University College of Dentistry in 1940 and established a practice in New York City.

Irving Peress became involved in politics after marrying Elaine Gittelson, an English teacher who became a therapist and psychiatric social worker.

Irving Peress applied for a commission as an Army dentist during World War II, but failed his physical because of a hernia and did not serve.

Irving Peress was maintaining a thriving practice by the early 1950s when doctors and dentists were being drafted for the Korean War.

Irving Peress gained weight in an effort to aggravate his high blood pressure, fail his physical, and avoid induction into the military.

Irving Peress was inducted into the Army Reserve on October 5,1952, and reported for active duty on January 3,1953.

Originally slated for assignment to Japan, Irving Peress asked for and received a compassionate reassignment based on his wife's and daughter's illnesses.

When he later completed a more detailed questionnaire, Irving Peress responded to queries about membership in the Communist party or affiliated organizations with the phrase "federal constitutional privilege", an allusion to the Fifth Amendment.

The chief dental surgeon at Camp Kilmer later testified that Irving Peress had no access to sensitive information there and that he and his assistant had, at the request of the camp's intelligence officer, monitored Irving Peress' activities without discovering anything at all suspicious.

In October 1953, Irving Peress was promoted to major, even though his commanding officer had recommended that Irving Peress be separated from the military because of suspicions stemming from his questionnaire answers.

Irving Peress appeared before McCarthy's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on January 30,1954, and invoked the Fifth Amendment dozens of times in his testimony.

McCarthy wrote a letter to Secretary of the Army Robert T Stevens calling for Peress to be court-martialed.

Irving Peress called for an investigation into the Army's handling of Peress' commissioning and promotion.

McCarthy said that Irving Peress' promotion had been ordered by a "silent master who decreed special treatment for Communists".

Irving Peress was persuaded to remove his name from the door of his dental practice.

Irving Peress's wife was pressured to resign as editor of the Parent-Teachers Association monthly bulletin at their local public school.

Irving Peress maintained his dental practice until 1980 and retired in 1982.

Irving Peress was still residing in the New York City area when he gave an interview to the New York Times in 2005.

Irving Peress died at his home in Queens on November 13,2014.

Irving Peress' son stated that afterwards, Irving Peress intentionally stopped taking his thyroid medication.