2012 Distinguished Service Citation

Dr. Ben Galloway is an extraordinarily accomplished medical doctor and pathologist, yet his expertise pales in comparison to the love, positive energy, and infectious smile he brings to his family, church, community, and Beloit College.

A history and biology double major, he was president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, a basketball and football player, and a member of student government, the Turtle Mound Society, and Omicron Delta Kappa. Beloit is a family tradition for Ben, whose father, Wendell, graduated in 1933.

After Beloit, Ben earned his degree in medicine from the University of Illinois College of Medicine and completed an internship and residency in pathology at Denver General Hospital. He served in the military from 1968-1970 when he was a major in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, an acting chief of service at Ft. Jackson, S.C., and a staff pathologist. He received the Army commendation medal for meritorious service in 1970.

He was a member of the medical staff at Denver General Hospital for 25 years when, in 1996, he left to pursue forensic pathology on a full-time basis. He was also an associate clinical professor of pathology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

Today, Ben is a forensic pathologist for various county coroners in the Denver area and in eastern Colorado, where he deals with 300 to 400 cases a year. Notably, he was the lead pathologist in the investigation of the 1999 Columbine High School shootings. Among his many other honors, Ben was named one of America’s Top Pathologists by Consumers’ Research in 2009. He is a member of the Bonfils Blood Center Foundation board, having served as president of the operating and foundation boards.

Ben gives back to his alma mater in a variety of impressive ways. He is a long-serving member of the Beloit College Alumni Association Board of Directors and regularly supports Beloit’s annual fund. In addition to making his own special gift toward the Strong Stadium track project, Ben was one of a handful of former athletes who, early in the fund-raising stages, spearheaded a volunteer-driven effort to contact other athletes from the glory days of the Beloit Relays to elicit support of The Track Renovation Project.

Ben Galloway once said he believes liberal arts is the best background for a physician. In a Beloit College Magazine story, he cited the book, The Healing Heart by Norman Cousins, who writes that “it’s the physician’s respect for the human soul that determines the worth of his or her service.”

Throughout his distinguished career, Ben has practiced medicine in that spirit, with skill and with respect, focusing his energy on what is arguably the most important work of all: the health and well-being of humanity. The Beloit College Alumni Association is proud to call Dr. William Bennett Galloway a Beloiter, and salutes him today with its highest honor, the Distinguished Service Citation.