Harry V. Ball was born in Wellston, Missouri, and attended Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri, achieving a B.A. in Sociology, in 1944. Six years later, he completed an M. A. at Washington University, and went on to attain his Ph. D. at the University of Minnesota in 1956. Ball's own scholarly research focused on the effects of social change, as well as changes in the legal system over time. “He researched and organized scholarly materials for examining how globally influenced structural rationalization of external law proceeds in a socially and culturally diverse setting in 19th and 20th century Hawai`i. Ball's lasting contributions to scholarly research is in the collation and organization of legal materials and associated community materials on the transformation of Native Hawaiian law from the early 1800's into more Western forms into the latter part of the 1900's.”1 The Law and Society Association (LSA) was founded in 1964 by Professors Harry Ball, Robert Yegge, and Richard Schwartz; Professor Ball became the first President. He was hired by the University of Hawai’i at Manoa on January 1, 1965, and continued his illustrious career until his retirement on June 30, 1992. Harry V. Ball, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa, died, May 16, 2006 at the age of 79.

1. College of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology, University of Hawaii at Manoa. “News & Events, Obituary: Prof. Harry V. Ball”. http://www.sociology.hawaii.edu/events/obitball.htm (accessed December 9, 2013).