Benjamin H. Long: born on April 7, 1906 in Logansport Indiana; died August 12, 1975 in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.
The son of a lawyer in Logansport, Indiana Benjamin Long was educated in the public schools of Logansport and later at the University of Indiana (1926). Mr. Long then attended Harvard to study law (1929). Upon graduation from law school, he moved to Detroit, and engaged in the practice of law continuously until his service in WWII. Mr. Long is the founder of the Law firm of Long, Preston, and Kinnaird.
Mr. Long served as an officer in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps of the United States Army in WWII, with the concluding rank of Lt. Col, He served as Litigation Officer of the First Service Command in Boston, Massachusetts; Assistant to the General Counsel, War Contracts Price Adjustment Board, in Washington D.C.; and Member of the War Department Board of Contact Appeals, in the office of the Secretary of War.
Further in his life, from 1953 to 1955 Mr. Long became a member of the Attorney General’s National Committee to Study the Antitrust Laws. Mr. Long was also counsel for the Michigan Hospital Service (Blue Cross) from 1947 to 1975. He continuously served as counsel to a number of industrial, financial, and charitable organizations. While in Indiana he served as member of the board of directors for Indiana University Foundation (1956-1973).
Throughout his life Mr. Long was interested in education and was a frequent friend and benefactor to educational institutions. In 1974 he made a anonymous donation to the LSSU Foundation for the Spitz projector that still resides in the planetarium today. After his death in 1975, and with permission from his family, the planetarium was dedicated in his name.