Lawyer
Centurion, 1910–1919
Born 2 May 1860 in New York (Manhattan), New York
Died 9 July 1919 in Cedarhurst, New York
Buried Green-Wood Cemetery
, Brooklyn, New York
Proposed by Charles O. Brewster and George A. Plimpton
Elected 5 March 1910 at age forty-nine
Century Memorial
Eugene Dexter Hawkins became recognized, early in his professional career, as a resourceful and successful trial lawyer. He was neither particularly eloquent nor particularly incisive in his method of presenting a case; but he never went into court without a thorough knowledge of the facts and of the law, and he had the capacity for extracting from witnesses everything that was material to the controversy—doing this in a quiet way, and with a degree of fairness and courtesy that commended him and the cause he represented both to juries and to judges. In later years he gradually relinquished the trial of cases to his junior partners, and became an advisory counsel. Long before his death, he had become the successful and trusted adviser of large and important interests. He was patient in listening; indefatigable in investigating and studying the problems submitted to him; slow, sometimes, to reach conclusions, but almost invariably right in the judgment finally arrived at.
Hawkins was a loyal Centurion, and was serving on the Club’s Admissions Committee at the time of his death. His conversation was marked by the high ideals and practical common sense which distinguished his professional career.
Alexander Dana Noyes
1920 Century Association Yearbook