Weiss, Peter, 1925-

Peter Weiss was born in Vienna (Austria) in 1925, and came to the United States in 1941. He served in the U.S. Army from 1944-1946, and with the U.S. Military Government in Berlin in 1947. After graduating cum laude from St. John's College in Annapolis (Maryland), he attended Yale Law School in 1949-1952. After graduation, he founded and became the executive director of the International Development Placement Association, a precursor of the Peace Corps. He practiced law from 1955 to 2006, dividing his time between representing multinational companies, as a specialist in trademark law, and doing pro bono work in the fields of human rights, constitutional law, and nuclear weapons law. Weiss is currently (2010) president of the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, and Vice President of the Center for Constitutional Rights. He is a member of the Executive Committee of Americans for Peace Now, which supports the Peace Now movement in Israel. He was a founder, and later President, of the American Committee on Africa. Peter Weiss is the husband of peace activist Cora Weiss.