Lawyer
Centurion, 1911–1954
Born 23 June 1873 in New York (Manhattan), New York
Died 30 July 1954 in Mineola, New York
Buried Trinity Cemetery
, Hewlett, New York
Proposed by J. Hampden Robb and Charles C. Burlingham
Elected 1 April 1911 at age thirty-seven
Archivist’s Note: Son of James T. Kilbreth; half-brother of Lucien Oudin and Maurice A. Oudin
Century Memorial
James T. Kilbreth graduated from Harvard, summa cum laude, in 1894 and from the Columbia Law School in 1897. His father [James T. Kilbreth] was Collector of the Port of New York, and James was associated with the City all his life. He was a member of the firm of Oudin, Kilbreth and Schackno, which had offices down on Pine Street.
He lived at Woodmere, and later at Hewlett, and used to play golf at the Rockaway Hunting Club. For some years he was a trustee of the Village of Hewlett. He remarked himself that his law practice was for the most part quiet and uneventful, but at one time “the even tenor of professional life was whipped up by organization and legal management of a world sulphur cartel, including Italian problems involving many trips abroad.” For his labors in this connection he received the decoration, Officer of the Crown of Italy.
Kilbreth was a gentleman of the old school, and wore a high starched collar to the last. He was a top-notch scholar, and in his old age took up the study of Greek—like Cato. At the Century he had a circle of cronies his own age, and they used to lunch together often, swapping stories and gossip, and complaining gently about the modern progress down the primrose path that is wont to become noticeable as we grow older.
George W. Martin
1955 Century Association Yearbook