Henry Hill Pierce

Although Henry Hill Pierce practiced his profession in New York with notable success for forty years, his heart was always in Maine, where he was born and his father and grandfather before him—all three graduates of Bowdoin. His great grandfather, Josiah Pierce, after fighting in the Revolution, obtained from the General Court of Massachusetts a grant of lands in Maine, and in 1786 built a house in Baldwin which Henry made his home when he retired from the firm of Sullivan & Cromwell. On his mother’s side, too, he belonged to Maine. His grandfather, Thomas Hill, a distinguished mathematician, served as president first of Antioch College and then of Harvard University and was for many years Pastor of the First Parish Church of Portland.

In 1926 President Sills of Bowdoin, conferring the degree of LL.D. on Pierce, cited him thus:

“HENRY HILL PIERCE, of the Class of 1896, Trustee of the College; author of ‘Bowdoin Beata’; high minded, able lawyer, whose work in one of the most important law firms in New York City and as a member of the Executive Committee of the New York City Bar Association has been marked by the highest standards both of intelligence and of conduct; bound to the College by family ties that, on the one hand, go back to the beginnings of Bowdoin, and are today associated with all the activities centering in the Association of Bowdoin Women, the Alumni Associations, the Governing Boards, and, no less important, the undergraduates; a lawyer who retains still something of the poetic temperament, an idealist who has achieved success in the whirling world of affairs.”

Stricken with sleeping sickness while in the prime of life, he kept the even tenor of his way, serene and inspiring, a Christian gentleman. His friends in the Century testify to his charm and kindliness, as well as to the quiet brilliancy of his mind.

Geoffrey Parsons
1940 Century Memorials