James Hurlock

1933 - 2016

Hurlock, James B.
James Bickford Hurlock died peacefully with family by his side on April 27th. A beloved husband, father, grandfather, sportsman, and sailor, Mr. Hurlock led a distinguished forty-one-year career at the law firm of White & Case, where for twenty years he served as Managing Partner overseeing the firm's global expansion. He was a Director and Chairman of Orient Express Hotels, Deputy Chairman of Acergy, and Interim CEO of Stolt-Nielson Transportation Group. He was a founding board member of the International Development Law Organization and served as Chairman from 2001-2004. He was a Trustee of the Corporation of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, New York Presbyterian Hospital, and the Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law at Columbia University, where he served as Chairman. In 2010 the New York State Bar Association bestowed on him its Root/Stimson Award for exemplary commitment to community service. Mr. Hurlock was born August 7th 1933 in Chicago, Illinois to James Bickford Hurlock and Elizabeth Charls Hurlock and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. He attended the Hawken School and graduated from Western Reserve Academy before attending Princeton University from which he graduated in 1955. At Princeton he received the Pyne Prize and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University where he attended Magdalen College. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1959 and joined White & Case the same year. He is survived by his wife of fifty-five years, Margaret Lyn (Holding) Hurlock, and three sons and their wives, James Bickford III and Kathryn Buck Hurlock, Burton Charls and Olivia Bruce Hurlock, and Matthew Hunter and Severa Imperiali Hurlock, and eight grandchildren. Mr. Hurlock spent a dozen years of his career living and raising his young family abroad, in Paris, Brussels and London and was a long time summer resident of Siasconset, MA, which he visited for the first time in 1942. He loved fishing and hunting and sailing with his family, and completed a transatlantic race and seven Bermuda races, the first in 1962. He was a scholar, a gentleman, an inspiring leader, and a loyal friend who will be greatly missed. A memorial service celebrating the life of James B. Hurlock will be held at Christ Church, 254 East Putnam Avenue, Greenwich on Thursday May 12th at 11 a.m. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 86 Water Street, Woods Hole, MA 02543 or the New York Presbyterian Fund, Inc., Office of Development, 654 West 170th Street, New York, NY 10022.