Henry Bradford Sargent

The days are long gone by (if they ever existed) when loyalty to an institution of learning and active participation in its affairs belonged primarily to graduates in the learned professions. The views expressed by Carnegie, Edison and Henry Ford on the value of college education to business men received publicity enough to confuse many minds on the question. That nine or ten per cent, of college graduates “went into business” even fifty or seventy-five years ago, that business pursuits nowadays claim a larger proportion of the graduating classes than any two or three learned professions combined, and that men of high station in the business world are the most loyal and efficient of college alumni, is sufficiently emphatic proof of the facts. Henry Bradford Sargent was one of the successful business men who will be most widely remembered, not for his achievement (which was notable) in trade and industry, but for his service on the administrative board of his Alma Mater. Individually, he was a fine illustration of the usefulness of college training to the practical man of affairs, and of the particular loyalty which such men display to their college in after life. He was not only trustee of Yale during eighteen years, but had served 34 years on the Yale Athletic committee and for 19 years as Treasurer of Yale Field. These were no merely honorary posts; one of his longest associates in the college work describes Sargent as building stands, auditing accounts, dealing with athletic committees of other colleges, helping to guide the policy of the undergraduates.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1928 Century Association Yearbook