Lawyer
Centurion, 1912–1932
Born 2 March 1850 in Charlottesville, Virginia
Died 20 July 1932 in New York (Manhattan), New York
Buried University of Virginia Cemetery and Columbarium
, Charlottesville, Virginia
Proposed by George C. Holt and Charles C. Burlingham
Elected 7 December 1912 at age sixty-two
Century Memorial
William [sic: Robert] Lewis Harrison had been a New Yorker fifty-seven years since he began his study for the law in the Seventies, but his speech never lost the flavor of his native Virginia. Son of a distinguished philologist, he came himself to be a gifted linguist, speaking freely French, German, Italian and Spanish. As legal adviser, he won the trust and confidence of a long list of important clients. In social life his genial temper and cordial manners won him a host of friends, and he served the public both as working churchman and, for many years, as chairman of the Board of Education’s law committee. In these days of unsettled credit complications, it is not without interest to recall, from the reminiscence of his early friends, the avowed rule of conduct with which Harrison began his business life: “I am resolved never to owe any man money, no matter how strict my economies may have to be.”
Alexander Dana Noyes
1933 Century Association Yearbook
