George Blam, 1917-1996, was born into a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, on 19 November 1917. His parents immigrated to the United States from Russia in 1906, and many of his European relatives were directly affected by the World Wars. Blam learned shorthand and moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he began a career in court reporting, after high school. In 1942, he enlisted in the army and became a Technician Third Grade; his service included taking shorthand notes in military courts, at concentration camps during liberation, and elsewhere. In April 1944, American author Ernest Hemingway, 1899-1961, began working as a war correspondent for Collier's. In August 1944, Hemingway claimed that he led an informal group of French resistance fighters that defended the small town of Rambouillet against German reoccupation during the Liberation of Paris, but such action was considered a violation of his role as a noncombatant. As a result, Colonel Clarence C. Park, Inspector General of the Third U.S. Army, launched an investigation into Hemingway's activities, and Blam, who was Park's assistant, interviewed Lt. Col. Kent A. Hunter, Major Owens, Edward P. Gaskell, Jacques H. Beau, and Ernest Hemingway himself. In October 1944, a U.S. Army court-martial exonerated Hemingway. After the war, Blam resumed his court reporting work in Cleveland. He took depositions related to medical malpractice, the Kent State shootings, and many other cases. Blam died in Beachwood, Ohio, on 16 December 1996.