Harold Coffin Syrett

Harold Coffin Syrett (October 22, 1913 – July 29, 1984) was an American historian. He served as the executive editor of The Papers of Alexander Hamilton and as the fourth president of Brooklyn College.

Biography

Syrett was born on President Street in Brooklyn, New York, to Frank Harold and Dorothy (Provost) Syrett. He majored in economics at Wesleyan University (B.A., 1935), where he was a catcher on the baseball team, and completed his graduate studies in history at Columbia University (M.A., 1938; Ph.D., 1944).

Syrett was the author of The City of Brooklyn, 1865–1898: a political history (1944), A Short History of New York State (1957), Interview in Weehawken: the Burr-Hamilton duel, as told in the original documents (1960), American Historical Documents (1962), A History of New York State (1967), and Andrew Jackson: His Contribution to the American Tradition. He co-authored A History of the American People (1952). He also edited The Gentleman and the Tiger (1956), the memoirs of George B. McClellan Jr., the 93rd mayor of New York City and son of the Union Army American Civil War general.

Later in life, he resided in Craryville, New York. Syrett died of hepatitis, the result of a blood transfusion during a hip operation, on July 29, 1984, at Columbia Memorial Hospital in Hudson, New York.

Two of his three sons also became historians: David Syrett, 1939-2004 (Distinguished Professor of History, Queens College, City University of New York) and John, 1942-2005 (Professor of History, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario). His third son, Matthew, is Librarian Emeritus at Mansfield University. His grandson, Nicholas Syrett, is also an historian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.