Benjamin Henry Dorsey, Jr.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/140008804/benjamin-henry-dorsey

Benjamin H. Dorsey Jr., lawyer who successfully defended officer in war crimes case, dies at 86

Benjamin H. Dorsey Jr. argued a case before the Supreme Court in 1959 and was a founder of a real estate investment concern.

By Matt Schudel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 17, 2011

Benjamin H. Dorsey Jr., 86, a Washington lawyer who specialized in securities law and successfully defended a high-ranking Army officer charged with war crimes in Vietnam, died Feb. 10 of congestive heart failure at the Carriage Hill nursing facility in Bethesda. He was a Bethesda resident.

After working for a forerunner of the Small Business Administration, Mr. Dorsey joined a private law practice in the early 1950s and ultimately became a partner in the Washington firm of Dorsey & Callahan.

In 1971, Mr. Dorsey was the civilian lawyer for Army Brig. Gen. John W. Donaldson, who had been charged with killing six Vietnamese civilians in 1968 and 1969. Donaldson, the highest-ranking officer accused of war crimes during the Vietnam War, was not associated with the My Lai massacre, in which hundreds of Vietnamese were killed.

After a four-month military judicial proceeding, in which Mr. Dorsey worked closely with an Army lawyer, Donaldson was exonerated.

Benjamin Henry Dorsey Jr. was born Feb. 13, 1924, in Portsmouth, N.H., and grew up primarily in Washington and on a family farm in Ellicott City. His father was a rear admiral in the Navy Medical Corps.

After attending Wilson High School in the District, Mr. Dorsey graduated from a boarding school in Pennsylvania. He was a 1945 graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and received a law degree from George Washington University in 1948.

In 1959, he argued a securities and insurance case before the Supreme Court, SEC v. Variable Life Insurance Co., in which the court held that variable annuity insurance contracts could be regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In 1960, he was a founder of the Washington Real Estate Investment Trust, a real estate investment concern. He was the trust's general counsel and secretary until 1995 and remained a trustee until 1998. He also retired from his law practice in 1998.

Mr. Dorsey was a member of the Metropolitan Club and the boards of directors of the Bulova Watch Co. and Travelers Aid International.

In 1955, he married Elizabeth Bradley Beukema, the daughter of Army Gen. Omar Bradley. She lives in Bethesda.

Mr. Dorsey's other survivors include two children, Melanie G. Dorsey of Potomac and Benjamin H. Dorsey III of Tampa; three stepchildren, Henry S. Beukema Jr. of Pittsburgh, Omar Bradley Beukema of Chevy Chase and Anne Bradley Doggett of Arlington County; 11 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.