Irving Adler, an author of science and math books for children, was featured in a New York Times obituary on Sunday. Adler, a resident of Bennington, died on Saturday. He was 99 years old.
Adler was one of 1,150 teachers in New York State who was targeted during the McCarthy era Red Scare. He claimed the Fifth Amendment and refused to speak when he was called for questioning in 1951 before a Senate subcommittee conducting a probe into Communist influences on American schools. He was later removed from his post as a math teacher under New York State’s Feinberg Law and he became the lead plaintiff in Adler v. Board of Education. The Feinberg Law was not ruled unconstitutional until 1967.
Adler later moved to Vermont and authored 87 books that explained mathematics and natural wonders to children.
