Walter C. Noyes

Before his service on the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, Walter Chadwick Noyes was known to his colleagues of the profession as the best type of country lawyer; thorough and accurate in approaching a case; quiet, deliberate and painstaking in the handling of it. Appointed first to the bench at the early age of thirty and after only nine years at the bar, he soon exhibited the ideal judicial temperament. As a judge, his work was recognized by well-known lawyers who practiced in his court as thoroughly well-done; not brilliant, but altogether sound. At the bar as on the bench, Judge Noyes’s principal characteristics were calm, dispassionate and thorough consideration of every problem which came before him. He never allowed himself to be hurried or fussed. He mastered the subjects he had to deal with, and he exhibited in his practice, as in his judicial work, very sound judgment.

Judge Noyes came with reasonable frequency to the Century during his later residence in New York and after his retirement from the bench, and his quiet conversation was that of a highly-informed and cultured man. But he never grew wholly reconciled to city life.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1927 Century Association Yearbook