Samuel Thorne

Samuel Thorne divided his time between the law and the Church. He was a lawyer by profession and an Episcopalian layman. His encouragement of sociological projects within the Church’s framework and of philanthropies to which he made personal contributions entitled him to a high place as an organizer of ecclesiastical and educational activities. He was first president of the Church Army in the United States; a trustee of the American Council of St. Luke’s International Medical Center in Tokyo, of Yale in China, and of the American University in China. After his retirement from the law in 1934, he directed most of his energies in these directions.

Samuel Thorne was born in Saugatuck, Connecticut, in 1874 and graduated from Yale in 1896. He took his law degree at Harvard Law School in 1899 and was admitted to the New York Bar in 1900. He began his professional work in the New York County District Attorney’s office under Eugene A. Philbin and continued under William Travers Jerome. In 1916, he became a member of the firm of Delafield, Thorne, Rogers and Howe where he specialized in real estate. He was a member of the American Bar Association, American Judicature Society, the American Branch of the International Law Association, and the Harvard Law School Association.

He lived in Rye, New York, and died there in his ninetieth year.

Roger Burlingame
1964 Century Association Yearbook