Samuel H. Fisher

Samuel H. Fisher graduated from Yale in 1889 and from the Yale Law School in 1892. The same year he was admitted to the Connecticut Bar; but he went to Washington for three years before returning to New Haven to practise law. In 1916 he moved his office permanently to New York and became personal counsel for Mrs. Stephen V. Harkness and her son Edward A. Harkness. This proved to be a fulltime employment, and a very important one, for the Harkness family controlled an immense fortune and the management of it involved all sorts of problems that required the attention of a wise and sophisticated administrator.

Sam was just that. He had been drafted by Yale University and by the State of Connecticut from time to time to serve in difficult assignments; and in his long residence at New Haven he got to know not only the men who were running the State but also Yale men of all ages everywhere in the country. During the Second World War he became Administrator of the Connecticut War Council and Defense Administrator of the State and his ability in these positions to command the intense loyalty of young men was perfectly extraordinary. He had strong feelings about regulations and public laws, and remarked that “during an emergency only God can make a Regulation that makes sense and is workable.” When the pressure of events made regulations essential, he made few and made them stick.

Sam’s life comprised myriad responsibilities—some important and some quite otherwise—which he discharged with common sense and competence; but to all of them he brought an enlightened understanding and a wise tolerance that led to a just and proper solution. To the town of Litchfield, where he lived, he was its first citizen, its loving conservator. He had the hearing ear and the seeing eye that the Lord hath made, and men repaired to him for help and counsel in confidence and in trust.

George W. Martin
1958 Century Association Yearbook