Lawyer
Centurion, 1921–1956
Born 4 November 1865 in New York (Manhattan), New York
Died 26 September 1956 in Far Hills, New Jersey
Proposed by Beverley Robinson and William Gardner Choate
Elected 7 May 1921 at age fifty-five
Century Memorial
Clarence B. Mitchell was born in New York, and prepared for college at St. John’s School. He graduated from Princeton in 1889, and from the Columbia Law School in 1891. He practised law in the City, and came eventually to be the senior partner in the firm of Choate, Larocque, and Mitchell.
He wrote several books, mostly connected with sport, including The A B C of Riding to Hounds and History of the Ivy Club. At one time he was president of the Union Club, and his tastes lay in that direction rather than in the Century, although he was a Centurion for 35 years.
Mitchell was an extremely pleasant and civilized person, but rather solitary. He used to lunch every day at the Down Town Association—usually by himself. He obviously knew everybody he wanted to know, and perhaps he was reluctant to risk being bored by effusive strangers. Nevertheless, if one had the courage to take the initiative, he was always friendly and responsive.
He lived to be ninety; and at the last came to have a somewhat gloomy view of the future of man—just like most of us who get to be ninety. The fact is, the world he knew and had fun in mostly went over the dam during the Second World War, and was succeeded by a period in which none of the old coinage seemed to be current.
A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday: seeing that is past as a watch in the night.
George W. Martin
1957 Century Association Yearbook
