General Sherrill Dies
Suddenly In Paris.
GEN. SHERRILL DIES
SUDDENLY IN PARIS
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Member of the International
Olympic Committee Also a
Diplomat, Writer, Athlete.
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NOTED SPRINTER AT YALE
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Originated Yale-Oxford Track
Meet in 1894--Ambassador
to Turkey in 1932-33.
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Wireless to THE NEW YORK TIMES.
Associated Press Photo.
GEN. CHARLES H. SHERRILL
PARIS, June 25.--General Charles H. Sherrill, American member of the International Olympic Committee, a champion sprinter in his college days and former United States Ambassador to Turkey, 1932-33, died here suddenly tonight of heart disease.
General Sherrill had been enjoying excellent health and only yesterday delivered a lecture before the International Diplomatic Academy on the life of Bismarck, on which he was an authority.
Death occurred at his home here in the Rue de Courcelles.
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Scholar and an Athlete
General Charles Hitchcock Sherrill, lawyer, diplomat, soldier, traveler, author, educator, politician, business man and athlete, brought to the Ambassadorship to Turkey a many-faceted experience in the ways of the world. From the days when he was winning track titles at Yale he had been an energetic figure in any movement in which he had taken an interest, and his interests were varied.
Born in Washington, D. C., he was the son of Charles H. and Sarah Fulton Wynkoop Sherrill. His age was 69.
While at Yale, where he received his A. B. in 1889, General Sherrill won, in 1887, the American 100-yard championship. In all he won seven intercollegiate championships on the track.
His interest in athletics never waned. He originated the series of international inter-university track matches that began with Yale vs. Oxford in 1894, and for many years he had been a member of the International Olympic Committee.
After receiving an A. M. from Yale in 1892, he devoted himself to the practice of law in New York, continuing until 1909 when he became American Minister to Argentina, serving there with distinction until the Summer of 1911. He then declined to become Ambassador to Japan and, because of ill health brought on by overwork, retired from the diplomatic service. He was credited with having increased the American-Argentine trade from $47,000,000 to $80,000,000 annually.
He returned to the practice of law in 1912, continuing as a working member of his profession until after the World War. He had been chairman of the board of the Berkshire Fine Spinning Associates and a director of the Shellmound Cotton Plantation Company.
Helped in Political Campaigns
General Sherrill never ran for political office but, long an ardent Republican, he took part in organizing parades and mass meetings during campaigns. For Taft and Sherman in 1908 he organized a parade of more than 90,000 business men in New York. In 1913 he was the man behind the great Mitchel mass meeting in Madison Square Garden. In 1916 he organized and was grand marshal of the preparedness parade over which he later became embroiled in a controversy with President Wilson, declaring that the latter had opposed the march because he didn't want to "irritate" German-Americans.
General Sherrill was colonel and aide-de-camp on the staffs of Governors Higgins and Odell, and when the United States entered the World War Governor Whitman appointed him State adjutant general. With the rank of brigadier general he was head of the State National Guard and in charge of the Federal draft in the State from Sept. 1, 1917, until Sept. 18, 1918.
Due largely to his efforts in popularizing the guard, it was raised from 22,000 at the time we entered the war to 39,620. On Sept. 8, it was estimated that under him 242,036 men went from the State to Federal training camps, in addition to 122,000 men who volunteered. Governor Whitman praised him highly for his indefatigable work.
General Sherrill founded the College of Fine Arts of New York University, was a trustee of the university, which awarded him an LL.D. degree in 1918.
A Prolific Author
He had written profusely. Among his works are "Stained Glass Tours in France," 1908; "Stained Glass Tours in England," 1909; "Stained Glass Tour in Italy," 1913; "French Memories of Eighteenth Century America," 1915; "Modernizing the Monroe Doctrine," 1916; "Have We a Far Eastern Policy?" 1920; "Prime Ministers and Presidents," 1922; "Stained Glass Tours in Spain and Flanders," 1924; "The Purple or the Red," 1924, "Stained Glass Tours in Germany," 1927, and "A Year's Embassy to Mustafa Kemal," 1934.
Following the defeat of Herbert Hoover, the mission of General Sherrill to Turkey came to an end. His term of office of less than a year was pronounced remarkably successful by observers at Istanbul. On his departure the Turkish press paid warm tribute to his able representation of his country's interests and to his personal friendship toward the Turkish nation. Special mention was made of his effective aid in the suppression of the drug traffic.
General Sherrill was a commander of the French Legion of Honor, a commander of the Order of Leopold I of Belgium, a grand officer of the Czechoslovak Order of the White Lion, a commander of the Swedish Order of the Polar Star, a commander of the Order of the Orange Nassau of Holland, a commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy and a grand officer of the Austrian Order of Merit.
He belonged to the American Bar Association, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Sons of the Revolution, Society of the War of 1812, Phi Delta Theta, Founders and Patriots, and Society of the Colonial Wars. His clubs included the University, Century, Union League, Grolier, Army and Navy, New York Athletic, Yale and Tuxedo.
The New York residence of General Sherrill was 20 East Sixty-fifth Street. His widow, whom he married in 1906, is the former George Barker Gibbs, a daughter of the late Edward N. Gibbs of New York.
Source:
Unknown, "General Sherrill Dies Suddenly In Paris," The New York Times, New York, Friday, 26 June, 1936, p. 19.
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