John B. Pine

The work of John B. Pine was done with so little ostentation that possibly few of the fellow-Centurions who listened to his friendly conversation at the Club’s dinner-table knew how much he had accomplished for New York and its institutions. He was an untiring collaborator in the interests of the Public Library, the parks, the Commission of Fine Arts, the rescue and care of dependent children; he was the inventor and introducer of the New York City flag. But the best of his energy was given to his Alma Mater, Columbia University, of whose board of trustees he was a member during thirty-two years, acting for most of the time as clerk of the Board. More perhaps than any other member of that body, Pine was responsible for the removal of Columbia from the 49th Street site, and it was upon his individual suggestion and initiative that the Bloomingdale Asylum property on Morningside Heights was eventually purchased for the University. But if Columbia’s interests were his real life work, New York will equally remember him as a useful citizen who loved the town of his birth and gave himself freely to promoting its welfare.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1923 Century Association Yearbook