William A. Lockwood

One of the best-known and best-loved of all Centurions left us late in 1966, but only after nearly fifty years of membership and in his own ninety-third year. It is hard to think of anyone who, in those many years, has done as much for The Century or who will be longer remembered as a more familiar figure in our House or who was a greater ornament to it. Tall, straight as a soldier, with a beautifully kept beard, of kindly eyes and a gentle manner, he was a constant reminder of an older and more tranquil civilization and one which we shall always try to keep alive. Whatever inner troubles he may have had—and we must all have some—he always seemed to take life in his stride and to face come what might with calm courage. “My wife and I,” Bill used to say, “are agreed that whatever troubles may come into our lives; whatever doubts or arguments we might have, there is no problem that the atomic bomb would not solve—and instantly.”

As a vice-president of The Century, Bill brought to a climax his long career of official duties and gifts to our welfare. He was a member of nearly every committee, including long service on the Board of Management. Especially remembered by us older Centurions was his indefatigable work as chairman of the Centennial fund which financed The Century’s greatest celebration in 1947.

For many summers, Bill used to come to lunch with a different flower in his buttonhole and all from the garden on Long Island which he and Mrs. Lockwood had created and maintained. We used to get the feeling that Bill had brought a bit of the true country to Forty-third Street; we needed it and we were grateful. His use and understanding of the English language were that of a purist; he was incensed to the point of pounding the Round Table so that all our mugs of Lockwood Planters’ Punch shook whenever anyone said “none were” or referred to the “last” instead of the “latest” meeting. What a just corrective force! Have we another—as right and as amiable?

In December, 1957, the Committee on Honors awarded William Lockwood The Century Medal and on the occasion of his ninetieth birthday, May 14, 1964, he was given a dinner attended by a dozen or so of his special friends and admirers.

William Andrew Lockwood was born in 1874 in Brooklyn. He was educated at Williams College from which he graduated in 1896 and Columbia Law School which gave him his law degree three years later. He became a member of the law firm of Morgan, Lockwood and L’Heureux. He served as counsel for the New York Curb Exchange for more than thirty years.

Whenever he could, he went to the informal Century lunch club that met once a week at the Down Town Association. He engaged in many civic activities in East Hampton where he was a member of the first Village Zoning Board of Appeals, chairman of the advisory board of the East Hampton Free Library, and former president of the Maidstone Club.

Bill Lockwood had an uncommonly strong physical constitution. In the last ten years of his life, he survived a sequence of illnesses and surgical operations that would have killed most men. With all this and even at his advanced age, he never showed a sign of senility or the loss of any faculty, and in his last appearances at The Century he seemed as animated and witty as when we first knew him.

Both young and old were his friends: even his juniors called him “Bill” by way of demonstrating their affection.

Roger Burlingame
1967 Century Association Yearbook