A. Chauncey Newlin, Class of 1925

A. Chauncey Newlin used his influence with some of the nation’s wealthiest families and largest corporations to raise millions of dollars for Centre College. Newlin, who served as a tax lawyer for such corporations as U.S. Steel, would advise his clients about how much they had available for charitable contributions, and at the same time tell them: “There’s a very worthy, selective, splendid college in Kentucky. Let me tell you about it.” He was the driving force to obtain funding to build the Doherty Library, Young Hall, and the Norton Center for the Arts. Newlin established the contacts that resulted in one of his clients, Henry and Grace Doherty, providing a grant of $1 million in 1965 used for the construction of the library, and another client, W.T. Grant, to aid in the construction of the new arts center, where the classroom section is named Grant Hall. Newlin Hall in the Norton Centre is named in his honor.

Newlin was born in Cincinnati in 1905, and spent his early years in Newport, Kentucky, and later in Danville, where his father was a post office employee. He graduated from Centre in 1925 as valedictorian of his class. As a student, Newlin majored in Latin and Greek, and was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity. His father, Edgar C. Newlin, was an 1881 graduate of Centre, and his brother, Rev. Edgar Newlin, former rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Danville, was a 1923 graduate. Newlin received his law degree from Columbia University in 1928, and in 1939 became a partner in the Wall Street law firm of White and Chase. He served as a partner in that firm until his retirement in 1978.

Newlin was named to Centre’s Board of Trustees in 1959, and served as its chair from 1969 to 1977. Along with being considered one of the country’s outstanding tax lawyers, he served as president and director of several charitable funds, and his interest in the arts was evident in other civic activities. He was a director of the Metropolitan Opera and a trustee of the Solomon Guggenheim Museum in New York. He received the honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Centre in 1958. Newlin died September 3, 1983.