PALM DESERT, CALIFORNIA – Morton Gollin, a World War II veteran and former prisoner of war, whose career as an attorney spanned seven decades, died at his home in Palm Desert on Sept. 25. He was 94.
Gollin, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, moved with his family to Milwaukee as a child and graduated from North Division High School. When the United States entered World War II, he enlisted in the Army and served in the Army Air Corps on the European front. On Aug. 7, 1944, while on a bombing raid over Czechoslovakia, Gollin’s plane sustained heavy damage from anti-aircraft fire, and the crew had to evacuate. Gollin was captured the following day (his twenty-second birthday) and spent the remainder of the war in a German Prisoner of War camp.
After liberation, Gollin returned to Wisconsin. He attended the University of Wisconsin – Madison, where he received his undergraduate and law degrees. Gollin practiced law in Milwaukee from the early 1950s until he moved to California in the mid-1980s. After relocating to Palm Springs, he continued practicing law until shortly before his death.
Over the past two decades, he and his wife, Alice Gollin, took an active role in World War II veterans and ex-POW organizations.
Gollin was a member of Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun when he lived in the Milwaukee area.
In addition to his wife, Gollin is survived by his children James Gollin, Lisa Evans, Mark Cooper, Kimberly Gollin, and Christopher Cooper, as well as his grandchildren. He was predeceased by his brothers, Norman Gollin and Lawrence (Lou) Gollin, and by his sister, Selma Gollin.