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Harald de Raasloff

Civil Engineer

Centurion, 1901–1924

Born 10 July 1855 in Poughkeepsie, New York

Died 26 May 1924 in New York (Manhattan), New York

Buried Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York

Proposed by James B. Ludlow and Henry E. Howland

Elected 7 December 1901 at age forty-six

Seconder of:

Century Memorial

Harold [sic: Harald] de Raasloff was son of General de Raasloff, long ago Danish Consul in New York and afterwards Danish Minister in Washington and Minister of War in Copenhagen. While in Washington the General negotiated the first treaty for the sale of the Virgin Islands to the United States. The son was educated at the Dresden Polytechnic as a civil engineer, and as such served under de Lesseps on the Panama Canal and later as a hydrographer under the Japanese Government. Later he spent about twenty-five years here in congenial pursuits and at the time of his death was President of the Onteora Club, which he used to call

“A land-locked leaven

In a hemlocked heaven.”

His disposition was to be in all contingencies serene, with a confidence based on principles early learned and consistently pursued. His recreation was the gentle craft of old Izaak Walton, practiced with his friends of the Century.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1925 Century Association Yearbook