George V. W. Duryee

A fine and energetic nature, if driven from its first selected post of action, will accomplish much that is admirable under other conditions imposed upon it by necessity. The life of George Van Wagenen Duryee illustrates this, one may say, beautifully. Graduating from Rutgers College in 1889, in 1891 he had become a member of a banking firm in Wall Street. Within two years, however, ill-health compelled him to remove to Saranac Lake, which he made his permanent home. There he married, and there he worked, devoting himself in every way to the interests of the town and to the carrying out of business enterprises constructed by his energy, and leading at the same time the life of a cultivated man of scholarly tastes. He was school trustee, village trustee, village president, and director on the Saranac Board of Trade, which was his own creation; also the chief promoter, trustee, and president, of the Saranac Lake Free Library. He was director of the bank, and the organizer of a model dairy farm, and carried on an active business in real estate. He did all things for his adoptive town, and did them well, while he himself diffused happiness within his home and cheerfulness abroad. In return they called him “Saranac’s leading citizen,” and the whole community joined in the sorrow, love, and admiration, which followed him to his grave amid the woods and mountains of the Adirondacks.

Henry Osborn Taylor
1913 Century Association Yearbook