Journalist
Centurion, 1914–1931
Born 25 May 1858 in Roslyn, New York
Died 8 May 1931 in Roslyn, New York
Buried Roslyn Cemetery
, Roslyn, New York
Proposed by William Milligan Sloane and Robert Bridges
Elected 7 November 1914 at age fifty-six
Archivist’s Note: Son of Parke Godwin; brother of Bryant Godwin; grandson of William Cullen Bryant
Century Memorial
Harold Godwin had a hereditary right to a place upon our roll. His father’s membership [Parke Godwin] had covered forty years; his grandfather [William Cullen Bryant] was a founder of the Club and its third president. The younger Godwin inherited from both of these ancestors the family bent for journalism. At different times he conducted the art criticism of three New York evening newspapers; he also had his turn at personal supervision of the news, serving as managing editor of the old Commercial Advertiser. In that place of authority, although Godwin made no very great impression on the newspaper-reading public, he was successful in gathering and organizing one of the most efficient newspaper staffs in New York of the later Eighties. Godwin’s personality was marked by quiet humor and a genuinely modest view of his own attainments, but also by resolute adherence to the standards of cultured journalism.
Alexander Dana Noyes
1932 Century Association Yearbook