Arts and Letters

An industrious and many-sided career of public service, marked always by conscientious devotion and usefulness and often by distinction, was that of David Jayne Hill, who died at Washington on March 2, 1932, in the 82nd year of his age. Dr. Hill came of the solid, straight-thinking, and high-minded stock which has fortunately been so well represented in the history of American life and letters. A native of New Jersey, he obtained his formal education at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, at the University of Pennsylvania, and later at the Universities of Berlin and Paris. When but twenty-nine years of age he undertook the work of educational administration as president of Bucknell University, and after nine years spent in that post passed to the University of Rochester, which important institution he served as president for eight years. Following his resignation from the work of educational administration, Dr. Hill spent several years in studying the public law of Europe, and made himself a master of it. In 1898 President McKinley called him to official public service as Assistant Secretary of State, and in the Department of State he served side by side with John Hay for five years. Then in succession he became Minister of the United States to Switzerland, to the Netherlands, and Ambassador to Germany, which distinguished post he held from 1908 to 1911. Dr. Hill was a member of the American Delegation to the Second Peace Conference at the Hague in 1907, and labored effectively to carry out the instructions of Secretary of State Root that a genuine Court of International Justice be brought into being to promote the peace of the world. Upon retiring from official service Dr. Hill made his home at the national capital, where his studies and literary work were carried forward eagerly and assiduously until his final illness overtook him.

Dr. Hill's sound scholarship, his knowledge of men, and his long experience in official life made him a valuable and valued adviser, both official and unofficial, in all that relates to international intercourse and international cooperation. His stout volumes on the History of Diplomacy, unfortunately never completed, are a fine monument of scholarly endeavor and ambition.

Dr. Hill's life represents that type of American career in public service, both official and unofficial, which is the pride of our people and one of its chief glories. It is fortunate indeed that there is so often to be found an open path between public service in the sphere of liberty and public service in the sphere of government, and that scholars and wise men are found ready to tread it.

Dr. Hill was elected to the Academy on November 17, 1920, as the fourth in succession to occupy chair No. 31. He greatly valued the associations and the opportunities which the Academy offered, and when his health permitted was always an eager and interested attendant upon its meetings and public exercises.