Irving Cutler

He was the son of Zelig Cutler and Frieda (née Wapner). He was born on Washburn Street in Chicago and attended elementary school in North Lawndale. His father ran a foreign press kiosk. During World War II, Irving Cutler served in the Navy. The destroyer on which he served crossed the Atlantic ten times, escorting over sixty freighters carrying American soldiers sent to the front in Europe. After the war, he earned a master's degree in social sciences from the University of Chicago and then a doctorate in urban geography from Northwestern University. He taught at Chicago State University for 24 years, including ten years as chair of the Geography Department. He also taught at DePaul University. He served as president of the Chicago Geographical Society. He co-founded and served for many years on the board of the Jewish Historical Society of Chicago.^[2][3]

• Distinguished Geographer Award by Illinois Geographic Society (2021)^[2]
• L’dor V’dor award by The Board of Jewish Education of Metropolitan Chicago (2023)^[2]

• Cutler, Irving (1965) The Chicago-Milwaukee corridor: a geographic study of intermetropolitan coalescence, Evanston: Dept. of Geography, Northwestern University Press OCLC 186101
• Cutler, Irving (1996) Urban communities, Indianapolis: Merrill Pub Co ISBN 978-0-675-19265-1
• Cutler, Irving (2006) Chicago, metropolis of the mid-continent, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press ISBN 978-0-7385-6015-1
• Cutler, Irving (2008) The Jews of Chicago: From Shtetl to Suburb, Chicago: University of Illinois  ISBN 978-0-252-07644-2
• Cutler, Irving (2009) Chicago's Jewish West Side, Charleston: Arcadia Publishing ISBN 978-1-5316-3893-1