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<p><em>Benjamin Lester “Ben” Landis Jr.</em> was born January 25, 1925 in Harrisburg, PA. His earliest recollections were of living in Camp Hill, PA, where the family moved a few years after his birth. Ben always remembered with fond nostalgia growing up in what was virtually the ideal small town. </p>
<p>In August 1939, after the divorce of his parents, Ben’s mother took her three children to Washington, DC. Ben graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School in June 1942. He became the president of the Student Council, was a member of the High School Cadet Corps, became a major and commanded the 2nd Battalion, Fifth Regiment in his senior year.</p>
<p>Having decided to fulfill his longtime dream of going to West Point, he enrolled in Millard’s West Point Preparatory School in the summer of 1942. He won an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy from the Commissioners of the District of Columbia and entered on July 1, 1943 as a member of the Class of 1946.</p>
<p>He graduated on June 6, 1946 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Infantry. The highlights of his career are numerous, not only for the personal satisfaction he felt for meeting the challenges of the assignments but also for the contribution he made to the accomplishment of the Army’s missions.</p>
<p>Most notable were his tours of duty with troops: first, from August 1947 to June 1951, with the 6th Constabulary Squadron (after January 1, 1949, the 3rd Battalion, 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment) in Coburg and Friedberg, Germany, as a platoon leader, a company commander, and an assistant S-3; second, from July 1960 to October 1962, with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Meade, MD and, after October 1961, at Kaiserslautern, Germany, initially as S-3 of the 3rd Squadron and then executive officer of the 2nd Squadron; and third, from August 1967 to September 1968, with the 2nd Squadron, 10th Cavalry, 7th Infantry Division, Camp Kaiser, South Korea, as commanding officer.</p>
<p>Another highlight was his assignment from January 1963 to July 1965 as senior liaison officer and chief of the U.S. Army Liaison Group to the commander in chief, French Forces in Germany, Baden-Oos, Germany.</p>
<p>His last Army career highlight was his assignment to the U.S. Army General Staff from September 1965 to August 1967 as a staff officer in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel, during which time he was the representative for personnel matters on the U.S. Army Committee for Unit Deployments to Vietnam. During his last year he became the chief of the Readiness Branch and thus responsible for the personnel aspects of the Army’s combat readiness system.</p>
<p>Upon his retirement as a colonel in October 1973, he launched a second career as a legal administrator. He managed the law firms of Galland, Kharasch, Calkins and Brown; then of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver and Kampelman; and finally Wald, Harkrader and Ross, all in Washington, DC. He joined the Association of Legal Administrators, served as the president-elect, then president of the Association’s Capital Chapter, and ended up as the regional vice-president of the Association.</p>
<p>In 1986, with four partners, he founded the Law Office Consulting Group, specializing in consulting to law firms. He retired at the end of 1991 to write a book on law firm management, The Governance of Law Firms: The Business of Practicing Law, published in 1996. He also published Searching for Stability, The World in the Twenty-First Century in 2008, and Improvising a War, based on his Pentagon years at the onset of the Vietnam war, in 2016.</p>
<p>Ben felt an abiding gratitude for the life he enjoyed for many reasons. One of them was the love and devotion of his mother, who, abandoned by her husband, had the courage to meet the challenge of raising her three children and ensuring their health, education, and happiness, sacrificing her own opportunities.</p>
<p>He was also grateful for the love of two uniquely wonderful women. He met Anne-Marie Niogret in Paris, France in August 1952. They were married in Washington, DC on September 18, 1954. After 39 years of a wonderful life together, Anne-Marie, known to all as “Biquet,” died tragically and suddenly of a massive heart attack on October 17, 1993. Then, in 1994, Michèle Fumery re-opened his heart and spirit to the possibilities of living a second life. Michèle and Ben were married in France in January 1995. Michèle’s love, companionship, and devotion sustained and nourished his heart and soul for the rest of his life.</p>
<p>His gratitude also extends to his three daughters: Anne-Frances, born April 21, 1959 in Neuilly, France; Catherine Laura, born August 2, 1960 in Fort Meade, MD; and Dominique Patricia, born March 29, 1963 in Bühl, Germany. They have recompensed the loving efforts of their parents in raising them by returning that love many fold and by living by the teachings and example of their parents. Ben and Biquet could not, and would not, have asked more of them.</p>
<p>Finally, Ben was thankful for the respect and the affection he received from the officers and men who served with him during his military career, from the colleagues in his subsequent career, and from his friends. These sentiments he returned as strongly as they were offered.</p>
<p>Ben Landis had an unequaled zest for living. He was shaped by many influences during his formative years, but above all, he was shaped by his respect for and adherence to the code instilled in him at West Point. He rests peacefully in the knowledge that he did his best as graduate, officer, husband, and father as he understood it to be. May it be said, “Well done!”</p>
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