Irving Pliskin ’49, who spent five months as a German prisoner of war after his plane was shot down in World War II, died on October 6, 2009, in Mount Holly, New Jersey.

He made it his mission to educate school children and adults by sharing his experiences flying in a B-17 bomber and getting shot down after 23 successful missions. Only three of his nine crew members survived to be taken to Stalag Luft 1, a POW camp in Barth, Germany. He was liberated by the Russians in 1945. He attained the rank of first lieutenant, and was awarded a Purple Heart and an Air Medal. He was born on July 1, 1924, in Schenectady, N.Y., and graduated from Flushing (N.Y.) High School. He immediately enlisted in the Army Air Force and served with the 8th Air Force. A member of Alpha Rho Upsilon fraternity, he graduated from Bowdoin in 1947 after just two years, but remained a member of the class of 1949. He moved to New York and worked briefly as a reporter but soon realized that he preferred advertising copywriting. In the 1950s and 1960s he taught advertising at Fairleigh Dickinson University. He moved to Cherry Hill, N.J., in the mid- 1960s and eventually started his own advertising firm. He sold the business in 1992. In retirement, he wrote fiction and personal history on the e-zine www. alongstoryshort.net. He served as an officer of several veterans and POW organizations and counseled entrepreneurs on how to expand their businesses. He is survived by Frances Sudhalter Pliskin, his wife of 61 years; two sons, David and Jon; a daughter, Nancie Glazer; two brothers; and four grandchildren.