Description
The Earl B. Gilliam Papers document five decades of Gilliam's career as a judge in San Diego County. The collection includes news clippings, photos,
correspondence, invitations, federal bench nominations, court cases, class notes, scrapbooks, award certificates, court dockets,
and judicial questionnaires. The majority of the material dates from around the 1940's to the late 1990's, and highlights
Gilliam's community service, as well as his appointments to local, state, and federal judgeships. The collection is divided
into five series: Personal Files (1945-1999), Professional Files (1956-2011), Memorial Files (2001), Scrapbooks (1945-2001), and Video Files (1979-2004).
Background
Earl Ben Gilliam was born in Clovis, New Mexico on August 17, 1931. At age 10, Gilliam and his parents, James Earl and Lula
Mae Gooden Gilliam, moved to San Diego. Gilliam attended Memorial Jr. High and San Diego High School where he played football
and ran track. He graduated high school in 1949 and then attended San Diego State College where he studied business with an
emphasis in accounting and a minor in economics. During college, Gilliam helped to establish the Delta Epsilon Chapter of
KAP Fraternity. In 1953, he was accepted to Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco and passed his Bar Examination in
1957. In the 1940's, Gilliam's family had opened the Seafood Louisiana Market on Imperial Avenue where Gilliam worked as a
clerk during high school, college, and while on vacation from law school. While in law school, he also worked as a janitor
and a playground director. Gilliam married Barbara Jean Crawford in 1956 and had two children, Kenneth Earl and Derrick James
Gilliam. Gilliam and Barbara Jean divorced in 1975.
Restrictions
The copyright interests in some of these materials have been transferred to or belong to San Diego State University. The nature
of historical archival and manuscript collections means that copyright status may be difficult or even impossible to determine.
Copyright resides with the creators of materials contained in the collection or their heirs. Requests for permission to publish
must be submitted to the Head of Special Collections, San Diego State University, Library and Information Access. When granted,
permission is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical item and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder(s), which must also be obtained in order to publish. Materials from our collections are
made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the
materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials.
Availability
This collection is open for research.