Paul Shipman Andrews: A Champion for Peace

On December 15, 1917, Hannah Sargent Sessions (daughter of Ruth Huntington Sessions and favorite granddaughter of Bishop Frederic Dan Huntington) married Syracuse lawyer Paul Shipman Andrews (1887-1967).  In her memoir “Sixty Odd”, Ruth describes her daughter’s marriage in vivid detail:

“The engagement was already a year old, and Paul was expecting to be sent to France in the spring. Roger[1] played the march, and I an accompaniment to a violin obbligato, by a student in the music department, while an old English wedding-hymn was sung and the married pair knelt after the benediction; it was very reverent and lovely. Then, as they rose from their knees came the dramatic feature of the occasion. Roger sounded the strains of The Star- Spangled Banner from the large trumpet, the tones of which filled the hall. The guests were already standing and smiling—bringing the affair to a triumphant climax…” [2]

Paul (third from the right) during his service in France, WW1

With that, Paul became a member of the Huntington family. Paul’s family, the Andrews, had quite a reputation of their own. His mother, Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews, was a popular writer best known for her 1906 short story “The Perfect Tribute”, and both Paul’s father and grandfather were well known lawyers in Syracuse. It was no surprise that he followed in their footsteps. He completed his undergraduate studies at Yale in 1909, and earned his law degree from Columbia University in 1912. After his service as a Captain in France during World War One, he would go on to become dean of the Syracuse University College of Law. His tenure as dean was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War; he once again served (this time as a Lieutenant Colonel) in North Africa and Italy from 1943 to 1946. During the war, he was heavily involved in humanitarian efforts to aid people displaced by the fighting in Italy. He received an award from the Italian Red Cross for his efforts. 

Cover page of Paul’s 1953 treatise “Cost of War or Price of Peace” Now a part of the PPH collection

Notes

[1]  Hannah’s brother, American composer Roger Sessions (1896-1985)

[2]  Sessions, Ruth Huntington. Sixty Odd: A Personal History. Brattleboro: Stephen Daye Press, 1936, 393.

[3] Both groups were part of the greater “World Federalist Movement” a popular 20th century political movement bent on creating a new international system that could prevent another global war

After the war, Paul became quite concerned with the growing threat of conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1952, he retired from his position at Syracuse, and devoted the rest of his life to advocating for global peace. To this end, he spent a year working for the pentagon during which he produced a paper titled “The Cost of War and the Price of Peace”. This extensively researched paper details what steps Paul believed were necessary to achieve peace in an increasingly turbulent world. After his time at the Pentagon, he spent the remainder of his life working in a similar capacity for two organizations dedicated to peace through global disarmament: the United World Federalists (UWF) and the World Association of World Federalists (WAWF) [3]. He spent much of the 1950s and 60s traveling throughout Europe and Africa, sharing his proposals with kings, statesmen, and several popes.

Peace remained Paul’s project right up to his death in 1967, at the age of 79. Obituaries were published as far away as Switzerland, and the UWF posthumously declared him their “Man of the Year”; both acts stand as testament to Paul’s reputation among the international community as one of peace’s greatest advocates.

A Swiss obituary for Paul, published 1967. The headline reads “A Champion of Peace”