Dates

• Existence: 1918 - 2010

Biographical Note: Kenneth D. Wallace

Kenneth Donald Wallace was a laywer who served as a pilot during in World War II in the India-Burma-China theater.

Wallace was born in Spokane, Washington in 1918. He briefly attended the United States Military Academy in West Point and achieved the rank of Second Lieutenant. From 1942-1945, Wallace served in the United States Army Air Forces. He completed 300 missions and was awarded two Distinguished Flying Cross citations as pilot of a C-47 on transport missions during the India-Burma-China Defensive campaign. He flew missions for the Military Intelligence Division for the last few months of the war, including transport of components for the atomic bomb.

Following the war, he completed a law degree at Columbia University and joined a Manhattan-based law firm. He successfully defended The New York Times' right to publish the Pentagon Papers before the United States Supreme Court in 1971. He also successfully served the plaintiff in the Supreme Court decision Diana Spirt/Equal Opportunity Commission v. Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association that established full pension rights for female teachers in 1984.

He resided in New York for most of his life, later living in Connecticut and finally moving to Seattle, Washington in 2002. He passed away in 2010. His funeral service was held at the Museum of Flight.

Biographical information derived from collection materials.

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