Frederic Pryor, student released in 1962 'Bridge of Spies' prisoner exchange, dies at 86

[brooklynite]

Washington Post

One of the most dramatic moments of the Cold War occurred Feb. 10, 1962, on a bridge connecting the then-divided states of East Germany and West Germany, when two high-profile prisoners — American pilot Francis Gary Powers and a convicted Soviet spy known as Rudolf Abel — were exchanged.

Delegations from the United States and Soviet Union stepped onto the Glienicke Bridge, between West Berlin and Potsdam, East Germany, in a tense scene portrayed in the 2015 Steven Spielberg film “Bridge of Spies.”

The two groups stood on opposite sides of a white marker in the middle of the bridge for 20 minutes, waiting for word that another American had been released from an East German prison, almost 20 miles away.

That prisoner was Frederic L. Pryor, a 28-year-old graduate student who had been detained in East Berlin for nearly six months. Dr. Pryor, who was denounced as a spy by his captors but never charged with a crime, died Sept. 2 at his home in Newtown Square, Pa. He was 86.

The Brother of my father's closest friend....