Paul A. Strassmann, CE’53

Paul Straussman emigrated to the United States in 1945 from Czechoslovakia.  He was admitted into the Cooper Union on the basis of his perfect SAT score in math.  (He had no high school transcript.)While a student at Cooper Union he had a summer job with the New Jersey Turnpike as an analyst of punch cards.  After Cooper, he had a career in computers, eventually becoming the Chief Information Officer at Xerox in 1969. He retired from Xerox in 1985.  In 1989, the Pentagon hired him as their Director of Defense Information. He later served as Chief Information Officer for NASA.

Paul has authored 18 books and over 300 articles. In 2006 he wrote a book called Paul’s War, about his experiences in the Czech resistance movement during World War II. He continues teaching as the Distinguished Professor of Information Sciences at the George Mason University.

Paul is married to another Cooper Union Alum.  He married Mona Frankel Straussmann (A’54) in 1954.

He has received the NASA Exceptional Service Medal (2003), and the Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the Department of Defense’s highest civilian award (1993).

Paul Straussmann was profiled in the Fall/Winter edition of At Cooper Union.  Link

Paul A. Strassmann was presented the Gano Dunn Award in 2015 and inducted into the Cooper Union Hall of Fame in 2015.