Necrology

Henry Baxter Harlan '53

Dec. 8, 1931-Jun. 29, 2023

Henry Baxter Harlan ’53 died at his home in Churchville, Md., on June 29, 2023. Born in Baltimore on Dec. 8, 1931, and raised in Churchville, he came to Hamilton from Bel Air High School and Mercersburg Academy. He brought with him two remarkable talents: a gift for foreign languages — he would eventually become fluent in five — and for figure skating.

On the Hill, Henry majored in French and Spanish, and, not surprisingly, was a member of the French Club for three years and the Spanish Club for one. During the summers after his freshman and sophomore years, he attended the French School at Middlebury College.

He was also one of several readers for a blind student. As reported in the Hamilton Alumni Review (Spring/Summer 2017): “I read advanced economics texts to him, and he took notes with a Braille-writing gizmo. I didn’t begin to understand the material. I just pronounced a series of words. But Bob did understand; he was brilliant.” Henry was a highly dedicated student who, in addition to graduating with honors in both French and Spanish, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. 

Henry’s figure skating credentials when he came to Hamilton were impeccable: he was a member of both Baltimore’s Sports Center Figure Skating Club and the U.S. Figure Skating Association. The Hamiltonian observed in his senior year entry that when Henry was not otherwise occupied, “you could find him figure skating, with amazing skill, at the Sage Building.” He continued skating throughout much of his adult life, according to his published obituary, “gliding effortlessly across the Grange Pond” in Churchville while “inventing figure skating moves.”

Ineligible for military service due to poor eyesight, he pursued a master’s degree in Romance languages at Johns Hopkins University. After completing that degree in 1954, he taught for two years at St. Peter’s Choir School in Philadelphia while taking courses at Loyola College to qualify for his teaching certification. 

He then accepted an appointment with the Home and Hospital Instructional Services, a division of the Baltimore Public Schools that provided tutors for students confined either to a hospital bed or to their homes due to serious illnesses. He took great satisfaction in his work, encouraging his pupils to take their schoolwork seriously despite their disabilities and imparting important knowledge at the same time. One could surmise that his support of a blind student on the Hill prefigured this work. 

Henry’s interest in languages also had a lighter side. In the mid-1970s, he engaged in a colloquy with another alumnus, published in the Hamilton Alumni Review, concerning the burning issue of subject-verb agreement in the opening line of the College’s alma mater. Is not “are” the proper form of the verb “to be” in this context, as in “Dear are thy Homestead, Glade and Glen?” The ultimate consensus was that “is” was, in fact, appropriate, but this led Henry to prepare a Latin translation of Carissima which, beyond its novelty, fit the rhythms of President Melancthon Woolsey Stryker’s melodies perfectly. The first stanza reads:

Cara silvestris sedes stet!

Lucís corona est fronte illa.

Rursum fovendam das temet,

Strenua tibi vis viret;

O victrix salve era, tu dulcís

domina!

In 1973, Henry resigned from the Baltimore school system but continued teaching as a private tutor, work he continued until retiring in 2001.

His sense of social responsibility led him both during his work life and in retirement to volunteer at multiple charities, the principal ones being Food for the Hungry and Our Daily Bread, both soup kitchens in Baltimore. He also diligently maintained and expanded the flower gardens that had first been planted by his parents, daffodils and tulips being of particular interest. He wrote and published short poems, regularly tackled The New York Times crossword, and created what he described as “artistic” crossword puzzles for Skating, among other magazines.

The principal legacy of Henry’s time on the Hill was, as he put it in his 50th reunion yearbook, “the sheer joy of learning, … as if there were no such things as grades or credits.” Two faculty members were particularly influential: Professor of English Thomas Johnston, whose teaching and high standards enabled Henry to learn to write “sterling prose,” and Professor of French Frank Piano. In addition, his conversations with Silvia Saunders, daughter of Professor of Chemistry Percy Saunders, regarding the care and feeding of flowers helped shape his later work as a family gardener.

Henry B. Harlan was predeceased by his grandfather, Laurence W. Baxter, Class of 1879, GP’53, and is survived by his sister, several nieces, nephews, and great-nieces and great-nephews.

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