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George Walton Green

Lawyer/Reformer

Centurion, 1889–1903

Born 9 May 1854 in New York (Manhattan), New York

Died 13 December 1903 in Springfield, Massachusetts

Buried Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York

Proposed by Robert W. de Forest and Edmund C. Stedman

Elected 7 December 1889 at age thirty-five

Century Memorial

A member by inheritance and by choice of the Church Militant in public life, George Walton Green fought faithfully and brilliantly for the best in Nation, State, and City. A descendant of one of the rustic battalion that gave check to British confidence at Bunker Hill, a graduate of Harvard and of the Law School of Columbia (1878), he began political almost as soon as professional activity. Originally a Republican by conviction, he was independent of party ties in his work for good government, and that work was courageous and intelligent. The only public office he held was that of Aqueduct Commissioner by appointment from Mayor [William Lafayette] Strong. He was a vigorous advocate of the merit system, and Counsel for the Civil Service Reform Association, and was for many years the Secretary of the American Copyright League, to the cause of which he gave efficient support. In his profession he attained an enviable position and by his unusual gifts was assured a steady advance but for the untimely failure of his health. As a writer for The Nation and other periodicals on public questions, and for Harper’s Weekly and Outing on sport and hunting, Mr. Green showed easy mastery of a style clear, vigorous, and spirited. His manly and trusty character, his genial disposition, his keen and vigorous mind, and his catholic interests and sympathy made him an attractive associate and a valued friend.

Edward Cary
1904 Century Association Yearbook