Irving Isaacson, who was pre-CIA spy for U.S., dies at 102

AUBURN, Maine — A World War II soldier who became a spy in Europe for the forerunner of the CIA has died in Maine. Irving Isaacson was 102.

Isaacson was a retired lawyer in Lewiston. The Albert & Burpee Funeral Home in Lewiston confirmed he died at Hospice House in his native Auburn last week.

He was a U.S. Army soldier assigned to the Office of Strategic Services. The Portland Press Herald reports he was trained to parachute behind enemy lines. He also helped the Dutch resistance effort.

Isaacson spied on the Soviets in Eastern Europe. He authored “Memoirs of an Amateur Spy: The Story of the First OSS Spy in the Cold War with the Russians” in 2001.

Isaacson met his wife, Auschwitz concentration camp survivor Judith Magyar Isaacson, in 1945. She died in 2015 at age 90.