William Joel Blass
American politician
William Joel Blass (October 19, 1917 – October 23, 2012) was an American war veteran, jurist, attorney, educator, and politician.
Early life
Joel Blass was born in Clinton, Mississippi and was educated in Mississippi and Louisiana during the Great Depression. He graduated from Louisiana State University (LSU) School of Law in 1940 and received a commission as second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Infantry through the LSU ROTC program. During World War II, Blass served with the Third Army in Europe through VE Day. He received the Bronze Star and attained the rank of major. Blass returned to military service during the Korean War.
Blass moved to Wiggins in Stone County, Mississippi with his wife and daughters in 1947 to work in an established law practice, but soon started his own law firm. In 1953, Blass was elected to Stone County's legislative seat and served two terms, during the turbulent years of the racist White Citizen's Council, which he opposed. He retired from the State legislature in 1960. Blass continued with his law practice in Wiggins and also maintained a law office in Gulfport, MS.
Teaching and judicial careers
During the 1960s, Blass served on the faculty at the University of Mississippi School of Law in Oxford, MS for 6 years.
The public source identifies “William Joel Blass” as american politician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around William, Joel and Blass.
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This entry incorporates text from “William Joel Blass” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.