James C. Parrish

In his thirty-five year affiliation with the Club, James Cresson Parrish prized his Century membership more than any other of his social affiliations. Dropping in at the Century luncheons from time to time, he had the faculty of making an incidental conversation with an unknown table companion the basis for further association; taking in some cases the form of correspondence on some subject they had touched upon in the course of their table talk. His business career embodied the interesting experience, first of traveling in Europe for an American importing house, then, through his perfect knowledge of French, forming connection with French, Dutch and British bondholders of American railroads and finally, in the railway reorganizations of the 70s and 80s, representing those foreign interests in America. Up to the last of his eighty-six years [sic: eighty-five], he was a skater and a golfer, and played nine holes at Garden City on the last day of his life.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1927 Century Association Yearbook