David Lasser; Space Visionary, Union Founder

David Lasser, an eclectic visionary who established unions, advised government agencies and envisioned flight to the moon decades ahead of the concept’s general acceptance, has died. He was 94.

Lasser died Sunday of congestive heart failure in Rancho Bernardo near San Diego, where he had lived since his retirement in 1969.

In 1931, Lasser published “The Conquest of Space,” one of several books in which he set out the real possibility of travel to the moon. At the time, he was regarded as a crackpot, but his scholarly prediction inspired science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke and became fact in 1969.

“I had my convictions,” Lasser told The Times in 1992 at his 90th birthday party. “I just had to assume that the truth would work itself out.”

Born to a poor immigrant family in Baltimore, Lasser dropped out of high school and lied about his age and joined the Army to fight in France in World War I, where he was gassed and suffered shell shock.

He next talked his way into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and graduated with a degree in engineering. Lasser became the editor of two science fiction magazines, “Science Wonder Stories” and “Air Wonder Stories” while writing his own science nonfiction.

With magazine colleagues, he founded the American Interplanetary Society, the first U.S. organization to promote space travel. It eventually evolved into the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Many officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration were members.

During the Depression, Lasser founded and became president of the Workers Alliance of America, which grew to 750,000 members. Lasser resigned in 1940 as Communists took over the group, but nevertheless was branded “red” in the McCarthy era, losing a postwar position with Averell Harriman to help administer the Marshall Plan in Europe.

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter wrote Lasser an apology, stating that a review by the State Department and the Agency for International Development, requested by then-Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), “concluded that you, like many other Americans during that unfortunate period, were treated unjustly.” The president commended Lasser for his “loyal and valuable service to this country in both the public and private sectors.”

Lasser worked with the War Production Board during World War II and was later a consultant to the Commerce and State departments.

In 1950, Lasser was named director of economics and research at the new International Union of Electrical Radio and Machine Workers, where he remained for 19 years.

During his retirement, Lasser campaigned successfully to persuade San Diego to switch its street lights to dimmer, low-sodium lights to improve telescopic work at nearby Palomar Observatory. He also taught a course and worked on a book about the origin of the universe.

Twice divorced, Lasser is survived by his wife of 32 years, Amelia, and a son from his first marriage, Daniel, of Rockville, Md.