Lawyer
Centurion, 1921–1952
Born 5 September 1873 in Plainfield, New Jersey
Died 25 November 1952 in Huntington, New York
Proposed by George W. Wickersham and Daniel Chester French
Elected 1 April 1921 at age forty-seven
Archivist’s Note: Son of Robert W. de Forest; nephew of Henry W. de Forest and Lockwood de Forest; grandson of H. G. De Forest; cousin of Alfred V. de Forest; father-in-law of Douglas Williams
Century Memorial
Johnston de Forest lived at Cold Spring Harbor; and, like many of the denizens of Long Island, he did not get around to the Club with the regularity of members who live in the City. Every day he came to the Down Town Club for lunch, but the end of the day would see him out of the City.
Near Cold Spring Harbor is the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, a great sailing center. Of all the members, de Forest’s reputation as a small-boat sailor was second to none. He was so successful in races that he was known as “the old fox of Long Island Sound.” In 1931 he took his eight-meter boat Priscilla III to Scotland, where he won the Clyde Fortnight series.
De Forest was a practicing lawyer. He was admitted to the Bar in 1899, and entered his father [Robert W. de Forest]’s firm, de Forest Brothers; he was counsel to the firm when he died. He was also a banker, and an astute and successful real estate operator. But it was in his public services that he shone particularly. He was a fellow in perpetuity of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, of which his father was president for many years, and he was a director of the Presbyterian Hospital. These two institutions are under infinite obligation to him for the years of selfless service which he devoted to them.
De Forest was a modest and gentle person. Like many of the rest of us, he became deaf when he got along in years. This is a disconcerting experience. It makes one shy and solitary, and it has other curious collateral effects. He bore this cross philosophically, but it interfered with work at board meetings and with casual conversations at lunch. Yet it gives one more time to read and think without interruption.
De Forest was an old-fashioned, honorable gentleman. He was born to a position of power, but that is only the guinea’s stamp; he was true gold for all that.
George W. Martin
1953 Century Association Yearbook
