Ira Glasser

Mr. Glasser served as Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union from 1978- 2001. Previously, he was Executive Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. Prior to his affiliation with the ACLU, Mr. Glasser was a mathematician and a member of the science and mathematics faculties of Queens College and Sarah Lawrence College, and was also editor of Current magazine.

Mr. Glasser authored the book, Visions of Liberty: The Bill of Rights for All Americans, an insightful analysis of how our rights developed, written to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Bill of Rights. Mr. Glasser is a widely published essayist on civil liberties principles and issues. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Village Voice, Harper’s, The New Republic, The Nation, and Christianity and Crisis, among other publications. He is also the co-author of Doing Good: The Limits of Benevolence.

Mr. Glasser received a B.S. degree in mathematics and graduated with honors in literature and the arts from Queens College in 1959. He has a master’s degree in mathematics from Ohio State University and also studied sociology and philosophy at the graduate level at the New School for Social Research. Born and raised in New York, Mr. Glasser is married, the father of four children, and the grandfather of ten.