Alma Florence Soller McLay (December 28, 1919 – April 5, 2017) was a member of

Robert H. Jackson Robert Houghwout Jackson (February 13, 1892 – October 9, 1954) was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Unit ...

's team that prosecuted Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg after World War II.

Early life

Alma Florence Soller was born in Narrowsburg, New York, the daughter of George David Soller (1879–1928) and Margaret Slater Soller (1892–1990). She was raised on her parents' chicken farm with three older siblings, William, George, and Beulah. She trained as a secretary before World War II.

Nuremberg trials

Soller began to work for the United States Department of Defense in 1941. At the end of World War II she met then U.S. Supreme Court Justice

, who asked her to join his team and document what would be the Nuremberg trials as transcriber, together with Elsie L. Douglas. Jackson's biographer, John Q. Barrett, said that McLay "probably never got the full credit she deserved for her work transcribing the testimony, often in various languages and in shorthand, and collating the evidence." The nature of the recording technology used in the trials made audio records fragile, and the stenographers' work more critical in documenting the historic process.

Personal life

Alma Soller later married Stanley McLay, an Air Force colonel and industrial economist, and they moved to

Rancho Palos Verdes, California Rancho Palos Verdes (Spanish for "Green Sticks Ranch") is a coastal city located in Los Angeles County, California atop the bluffs of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, neighboring other cities in the Palos Verdes Hills, including Palos Verdes Estate ...

in 1954. She had three children, Derek, Murdoch, and Alma. Alma Soller McLay was widowed when Stanley died in 1991; she died in 2017, aged 97 years, in Torrance, California. She was the last surviving member of the 18-person American team at Nuremberg.

References

External links

*John Q. Barrett,
The Jackson List
'.
Alma Soller McLay (2004) on London Agreement Report.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soller McLay, Alma 1919 births 2017 deaths People from Sullivan County, New York Stenographers American women civilians in World War II 20th-century American people