Galland, Benjamin S. (Benjamin Strauss), 1888-

Benjamin S. Galland was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in 1888. Galland began his collegiate career at Cornell University where he earned an A. B. In 1916, he enrolled in the Law School at the University of Colorado where he became a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Scribblers Club. He also served as President of Combined Laws and Junior Laws. He graduated in 1919 with an L.L.B. and returned to Wilkes-Barre, Penn., where he set up his own law practice. In 1931, he returned to CU Boulder to take a teaching position at the Law School. As a professor, Galland was active in the Alumni Association and was involved in the founding of the Independent Students Association (ISA). As America entered World War II, Galland put together a law school newsletter to keep track of his former students as they were assigned across the globe and sent them news of home. The return correspondence indicates that, in keeping with the pre-1945 small-university atmosphere, Galland continued the tradition of faculty fraternization with his students including the frequent entertaining of student groups at his home. They were mostly junior level officers serving in various branches of the military or employed in governmental work. A few of them later became key figures at the University. Ira Rothergerber became a prominent Denver attorney as well as a supporter of John F. Kennedy. For advice on his newsletter, Galland also sent copies to a few prominent friends including: Robert Stearns, Law Dean until 1939 then CU president until 1953; Edward King, Law School Dean; Wiley B. Rutledge Jr., US Supreme Court Associate Justice in 1943, and former classmate Brig. General Elbridge Gerry Chapman. Also contributing to the newsletter, were Ms. Cecily Sherwood (who added many personal notes), and Fred Storke. Fred Storke was a professor in the Law Department and Cecily Sherwood worked in the Law Library. Galland taught at the University of Colorado from 1931. He retired from the law faculty in the early 1950s.