In Memoriam: William Bentley Ball
(from the Winter 1999-2000 Quarterly Newsletter)
William Bentley Ball, one of the nation's foremost Catholic
constitutional lawyers and a member of the Thomas Aquinas
College Board of Governors, died on January 10, while on vacation
in Florida. Mr. Ball was 82.
Mr. Ball served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and
received his law degree from the University of Notre Dame
in 1948. After working in the legal departments of W.R. Grace
& Co. and Pfizer, Inc., Mr. Ball taught constitutional
law at the Villanova University School of Law from 1955 to
1960. He then served as General Counsel to the Pennsylvania
Catholic Conference for the next eight years, after which
he formed the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, law firm of Ball,
Skelly, Murren & Counsel where he continued to represent
the Conference until his death.
One of Mr. Ball's first and most notable cases was the Supreme
Court case of Wisconsin v. Yoder, in which the state of Wisconsin
tried to force Amish children to attend school until they
turned 16. He won that case, and later went on to serve as
counsel in 24 other constitutional cases before the Supreme
Court. He was chief litigation counsel in constitutional litigation
before the supreme courts of 12 states, and the lower courts
of 17 states and many federal courts. He appeared before Congressional
committees numerous times on a wide variety of issues relating
to religious freedom and constitutional law.
His articles appeared regularly in Crisis, First
Things, Saturday Review, Teachers College Record,
and law reviews, and he was the author of several books, including
Whose Values - The Battle For Morality in Pluralistic America
(Servant 1985), and Mere Creatures Of The State Education,
Religion, And The Courts (Crisis Books, 1994).
He assisted a number of pro-life and religious liberty groups,
including the American Family Institute and the Human Life
and National Family Planning Foundation, and the National
Federation for Decency. He also sought to forge alliances
with Catholics and Evangelical Christians and was one of the
signers of the much-discussed statement, Evangelicals &
Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium.
He also edited the book, In Search Of A National Morality
(Baker Books/Ignatius Press 1992), which sought to explore
common ground between those of orthodox Christian beliefs.
Mr. Ball became fast friends with Thomas Aquinas College
when he came to give a lecture on Constitutional law in 1992.
Over the next several years, he provided valuable assistance
to the College in a controversy involving the accreditation
initiatives of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges
to impose cultural diversity standards on the college curricula.
His love for the College endured, and in 1996 he accepted
an invitation to serve on the College's Board of Governors,
a magnanimous commitment in view of the many worthy organizations
and institutions clamoring for his attention.
"A model of Christian charity, William Bentley Ball
was the legal giant of our times for Christians everywhere,"
said President Thomas Dillon, who attended his funeral in
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. "The College is profoundly
grateful to this champion of religious freedom not only for
the achievements he won for so many, but for his commitment
to authentic Catholic liberal education and to Thomas Aquinas
College in particular." Mr. Ball's family directed that
memorial contributions be sent to the Pennsylvania Pro-Life
Federation or to Thomas Aquinas College.
May he rest in peace.
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