Industrialist M.H. Pryor Presented AID Award

(News Washington Bureau)

WASHINGTON — Ann Arbor industrialist Millard H. Pryor, 64, of 715 Spring Valley Dr., today received the Meritorious Honor Award of the Agency for International Development (AID) for three years of achievement in the Far East.

Pryor received the plaque and lapel pin in the office of assistant AID administrator Rutherford M. Poats. The plaque inscription cites his “solid achievement in industrial development and private investment in the Far East.”

In semi-retirement as chairman of the board of the Mollard-Barnes Manufacturing Co. of Mansfield, Ohio, Pryor became interested in helping combat communism 3 1/2 years ago when his son, Frederic L. Pryor, then 28, was arrested in East Germany.

The younger Pryor had been traveling in East Germany to gather material for a scholarly paper on economics. He was held by the East Germans on unspecified Charges for 5 1/2 months, while his parents negotiated for his release in Washington and from Berlin.

He was finally returned to the West as part of the “deal” involving exchange of U-2 Pilot Francis Gary Powers for Russian master-spy Rudolf Abel on Feb. 10, 1962.

After the negotiations involving his son had been successfully concluded, Pryor offered his services to the State Department to help fight communism. It was a time when the U.S. government was making a special effort to interest top American businessmen in such contributions of their time and talents.

Pryor was appointed chief of the private enterprise and industrial division of AID.

He was on contract as a government employe for two years, and continued on duty at his own expense for an additional year to see through two development loans for the Republic of Korea.

The loans were finally approved last June, and Pryor returned to Ann Arbor.

He was called back to Washington today to receive the Meritorious Honor Award.