Byron Palls immigrated to the United States soon after completing his secondary education in Athens at the Photopoulou Gymnasium. He volunteered to serve in the U.S. Army and spent his tour of duty with the 4th Observation Battery (Artillery) in northern Italy, under NATO, an area that proved to be an ideal base for travel throughout Europe.

Upon his return to the United States, he worked his way through school in different food establishments and eventually became the Food Service Supervisor and Catering Manager of the Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas, all the while attending classes part time. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Spanish/French and went on to earn a Master’s degree in Spanish/French Literature from the University of Kansas; he finally became a full-time student at Florida State University and earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Spanish literature with a minor in French literature; his dissertation (“La evolución de la novelística de Antonio Ferres”) was directed by the well known Dr. José Ángeles of the University of Valencia, Spain.

Over the years, he taught courses in English, Latin, Modern Greek, Spanish (etymology, language, and literature), comparative literature, literary theory and Western civilization at different institutions of learning. His final posts were at the University of Tampa and the Berkeley Preparatory School.

Prior to his authorship of, Cultural Portraits, A Synoptic Guide, (Bloomington: AuthorHouse, 2008), he authored Intermediate Greek Reader and Grammar Review (Athens: Kontos, 1971) a second-year college reader and several critical articles on Spanish literature, published in Spain, Mexico and the United States. He, along with his wife, Beatrice K. Palls, developed Cultural Connections, a game about the Spanish-Speaking World that promotes encyclopedic knowledge about the 20 Spanish-speaking countries of the world.

As Director of International Studies at Berkeley, he developed and directed study-abroad and educational programs in Argentina, Spain, China, Ecuador, France, Greece, Mexico and Russia. Cultural Portraits is the product of research-based information, gathered over a period of five years, which led Dr. Palls to visit some 45 countries on five continents. He has also been instrumental in the development of a Hellenic Studies program at St. Petersburg College-Tarpon Springs, FL campus, where students enroll in courses in Greek Mythology, Greek Culture, Greek Philosophy and in Biblical Greek–the lingua franca of eastern Mediterranean at the time of Christ.

Among his honors are: membership in the Cum Laude and Sigma Delta Pi honor societies, the Wershow Award (for his contributions in the field of foreign language education in Florida), and inclusion in a number of “Who’s Who” publications (i.e., Men of Achievement, International Who’s Who of Intellectuals, Dictionary of International Biography, Who’s Who of Greek Origin in Institutions of Higher Learning in the U.S. and Canada, The Cambridge Registry, Personalities of the South, et al.).

He was fluent in English, Greek and Spanish and had a working knowledge of French and Italian. He was a member of the American Association of University Professors and the North American Shrine; he served as President of the Wichita International Association and the American Foundation for Greek Language and Culture; and he frequently volunteered for a number of professional, civic and philanthropic organizations. May his memory be eternal.