Bela Gold, also Bill Gold, (born 30 January 1915), was born in Cluj-Napoca

Cluj-Napoca

Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...

 (then Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

, now Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

).

Biography

He was the son of Esther (born 1891) and Leo Gold (born 1890), and had a brother, William Gold (born 1921). His father was a dry goods salesman, and the family had emigrated in 1920. He married Sonia Steinman Gold

Sonia Steinman Gold

Sonia Steinman Gold has been alleged to be part of the Silvermaster spy ring in Washington D.C., spying for the Soviet Union during World War II.-Biography:...

 in 1938.

In the early 40s he began work at the Senate Subcommittee on War Mobilization and Sonya worked in government as well, for a time for Harry Dexter White

Harry Dexter White

Harry Dexter White was an American economist, and senior U.S. Treasury department official, participating in the Bretton Woods conference...

.

The Golds were spied upon by J Edgar Hoover's FBI for a time in the 1940s. The Golds came to testify at the House Unamerican Activities Committee because of the accusations of Elizabeth Bentley

Elizabeth Bentley

Elizabeth Terrill Bentley was an American spy for the Soviet Union from 1938 until 1945. In 1945 she defected from the Communist Party and Soviet intelligence and became an informer for the U.S. She exposed two networks of spies, ultimately naming over 80 Americans who had engaged in espionage for...

. The Golds denied working with the Soviets and denied they were members of the communist party. Haynes, Klehr, and Vassiliev wrote a book published in 2009 claiming that the Golds were recruited to give information to Soviet agents. Some of their work has been debated by other historians.

After the war Bill went to the University of Pittsburgh

University of Pittsburgh

The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...

 and became a professor. He later became a research director at Case Western Reserve university, and eventually a professor at Claremont Graduate School (now Claremont Graduate University

Claremont Graduate University

Claremont Graduate University is a private, all-graduate research university located in Claremont, California, a city east of downtown Los Angeles...

). He also worked on the National Research Council

United States National Research Council

The National Research Council of the USA is the working arm of the United States National Academies, carrying out most of the studies done in their names.The National Academies include:* National Academy of Sciences...

and wrote several books.