Joseph H. Choate

A week from to-night there will be a meeting in memory of our late beloved President, Joseph Hodges Choate. Nevertheless it is fitting to record in our Club Book the affection we all bore him and the honor in which we held him. We will not speak of the fair course of that long and happy life. But we cannot be denied to-night a closing reference to the week of heroism in which it terminated. The time, as all remember, was the week of the reception of the representatives of England and France. The city looked to Mr. Choate to take the foremost part in honoring the city’s guests. It was of international importance that he should do so, and thus by an example make clear to Europe that the best of America was heart and soul with the Allies. Mr. Choate had been informed that the exertion might have a fatal ending. He did not hesitate. His mind was bright and his heart as glad as the hand which he extended. But the body was outworn. And as we hold him in our minds slowly ascending the steps of City Hall with Mr. Balfour, we know that he then faced death with equal heroism and greater certainty than the men in the trenches. May it also be given to us that nothing shall be closer to the noblest intention of our lives than the manner of our departure.

Henry Osborn Taylor
1918 Century Association Yearbook