Peter Yarrow
Early life and family
Peter Yarrow was born in Manhattan on May 31, 1938, the son of Vera Wisebrode (née Vira Burtakoff) and Bernard Yarrow. His parents were educated Ukrainian Jewish immigrants whose families had settled in Providence, Rhode Island.
Early life and family
Bernard Yarrow (1899–1973) attended the Jagiellonian University (Kraków) and the Odesa University (Odesa) before emigrating to the United States in 1922 at age 23. He anglicized his surname from Yaroshevitz to Yarrow, obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in 1925 from Columbia University, where he joined Phi Sigma Delta fraternity, and graduated from Columbia Law School in 1928. He then maintained a private law practice in New York City until 1938, when he was appointed an assistant district attorney under Thomas E. Dewey. He was recruited into the Office of Strategic Services, where he served with distinction, in 1944.
Early life and family
After the war, Bernard joined Sullivan & Cromwell, the Dulles brothers' law firm. He was a founding board member of the National Committee for a Free Europe, an anti-Communist organization. He became a senior vice-president of the CIA-funded Radio Free Europe, an organization he helped found, in 1952.
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