U.S. District Judge
Centurion, 1895–1907
Born 12 June 1849 in New Haven, Connecticut
Died 2 June 1907 in New Haven, Connecticut
Buried Grove Street Cemetery
, New Haven, Connecticut
Proposed by Thomas Thacher and Walter B. James
Elected 6 April 1895 at age forty-five
Archivist’s Note: Brother of James M. Townsend
Century Memorial
William Kneeland Townsend, for twelve years a member here, was a distinguished jurist, a loved and brilliant son of Yale, a great citizen of Connecticut and of the United States. He was fifty-seven years of age when he completed his service as professor and judge. His instruction was accurate and stimulating, his writings were marked by learning and clarity, and one at least of his many important decisions is a classic in the history of our territorial expansion. In these rooms, as elsewhere, he was noted for his charm of manner and his signal capacity for friendship. Life was for him a glorious conflict, and he felt the mingled pain and joy of struggle. For many years before the end, he knew the measure of his days, but he displayed his constancy and his courage in the deliberate choice of labor to the last, in the mastery of circumstance, and in a fifteen years’ warfare with disease, throughout which his powers for usefulness were not abated nor the geniality of his nature clouded.
William Milligan Sloane
1908 Century Association Yearbook
