Irving Adler (1913- ), an educator, mathematician, science writer and progressive activist, was born in New York City, attended City College (B.S., 1931) and received graduate degrees in mathematics from Columbia University (M.A., 1938; Ph.D., 1961). From 1932-1952 he taught mathematics in the New York City secondary schools and was an activist in the progressive Teachers' Union, and in 1953 was the National Director of the National Council of the Arts, Sciences and Professions. In 1954 he was suspended for refusing to cooperate with government investigations into teachers' political beliefs and associations. Reinstated in 1976, he then retired. In the 1950s Adler began a long and successful career as the author (frequently with his first wife Ruth Adler) of numerous popular books on mathematics and science (many for children), and also wrote What We Want of Our Schools: Plain Talk on Education, from Theory to Budgets(1957). Adler also published several scholarly papers on mathematics, book reviews, and articles on the philosophy of science and on dialectical materialism. Adler was a founding board member of the American Institute for Marxist Studies (AIMS) and a regular contributor to Science & Society(a Marxist quarterly). Moving to Vermont in the early 1960s, he continued his progressive activism locally, and through his philanthropic efforts helped to establish the City College Volunteers in Spain Memorial Scholarship and, at Dartmouth College, the Joseph Dallet Jr. 1927 Memorial Prize, each in honor of alumni who fought in the Spanish Civil War.