George C. Holt

George Chandler Holt’s judicial career reproduced qualities which have possibly been more familiar on the English bench than on our own—strict insistence on the court’s authority and dignity but, along with that, subtle humor and delight in the amenities of life. During his eleven years’ service as United States district judge, his decisions won high repute, alike for soundness and learning. His opinions, always distinguished by fine literary sense and style, he mostly handed down, again like the English judges, with full formality from the bench itself. But he had his own conceptions of the place. His observance of judicial Union hours was as scrupulous as his maintenance of court decorum. Counsel or witness might be in the middle of a sentence when the clock struck four, but the Judge rose promptly at the signal, reached for hat and overcoat, and started unceremoniously for the Century to play pool. Some aspects of the court itself roused his sense of humor. Reminded, when he received his summons from common-law practice to the Admiralty bench, of certain previous off-hand comments of his own on that field of jurisprudence, Holt expressed the hope that at least there would be “no moaning of the bar when I put out to sea.” The twinkling eye and drawling speech which accompanied extra-judicial opinions of this sort became as familiar to his neighbors at the Century lunch-table as to his fellow-lawyers.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1932 Century Association Yearbook