Role: Board | Page 2 | The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives

Robert Coale

Robert S. Coale is Professeur des Universités (Professor) in Hispanic Studies at the Université de Rouen (Normandy, France). Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, he holds a B.A. in history and Spanish from Washington College. One day some thirty years ago he went off to Madrid to improve his Spanish and never looked back, eventually earning a Doctorat from the Université de Paris IV-La Sorbonne. In 1996 he actively participated in the 60th anniversary Homage to the IB in Madrid and thus began his relationship with ALBA. He has been the moderator of the ALBA listserv since 1999. His area of specialization is 20th century Spanish history, especially the Spanish Civil War, the International Brigades and the exile of Spanish Loyalists in France. He occasionally returns to the US so as not to forget how to pronounce Bawlmer.

Christopher Brooks

Chris Brooks is the driving force behind ALBA’s online biographical database of Lincoln Brigade veterans. His countless hours of research and correspondence have produced a comprehensive and accessible collection that has put a story and a face to thousands of veterans.

John Brickman

John M. Brickman, a lawyer, is a partner and head of litigation in the Long Island office of McLaughlin & Stern, LLP. He serves as a Commissioner of the New York State Legislative Ethics Commission. From 2007 until 2011, he was a Commissioner of the New York State Commission on Public Integrity, which enforced lobbying and public employee ethics laws; he was a Director of the Nassau Health Care Corporation, which operates the Nassau University Medical Center; and he is a Director and former Chairman of the Correctional Association of New York, an organization founded in 1844 that visits prisons and does research and advocacy in criminal justice.

Ellyn Polshek

Prior to attending law school, Ellyn Polshek worked in publishing as Managing Editor at Grossman Publishers, a Division of the Viking Press, then as a Senior Editor at Holt, Rinehart and Winston and later at William Morrow. She received her JD in 1985 at the Columbia Law School. Following graduation, she practiced law as an Assistant District Attorney in the Appeals Bureau at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. She argued her cases before the Appellate Division in New York County and when necessary at the Court of Appeals in Albany.

Angela Giral

Angela Giral was born in Madrid less than a year before the Spanish Civil War started. The family escaped from their summer residence in San Rafael, walking all night through the Segovia Forest. In 1939, they moved to Mexico, where Angela attended the National University (UNAM). In 1956, she moved to Ann Arbor, where she obtained a Masters of Library Science. In 1970, she became an American citizen. She has worked as a librarian at Princeton (Urban and Environmental Studies), Harvard (Graduate School of Design), and Columbia (Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library). After retiring from Columbia she engaged in the conservation and processing of the private papers of her grandfather, Jose Giral Pereira, a minister of the republican government during the war, as well as in exile. The archive, consisting of over 10,000 letters and documents, was donated by the family to Spain’s Archivo Historico Nacional in 2009. Several books have been since published based on its contents. From her early childhood, listening to the songs of the Spanish Civil War, she was in awe of the young people who gave their energy, youth, and, sometimes, their lives, to defend democracy and the republican ideals of her country when it was an early victim of fascism.