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Prominent Maine Attorney - And Former Spy - Irving Isaacson Dies At 102

Courtesy Isaacson family

Irving Isaacson has died. A World War II veteran, he was an Auburn native who practiced law in Lewiston for 65 years.  He also did metalworking and blacksmithing — and he was a spy.

Isaacson was assigned, for a time, to the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor to the CIA. After the war, he spied on the Soviets, for a time, in eastern Europe. 

Matthew Algeo, a former news producer at Maine Public, interviewed Isaacson in 2002 on the occasion of the release of his book, “Memoirs of an Amateur Spy.” As he told Algeo, his first assignment with the OSS was to parachute behind enemy lines near the end of WWII and distribute propaganda.

Isaacson's wife, Judith, a holocaust survivor, died in 2015. Irving Isaacson died last Wednesday. He was 102.