“He took pride and pleasure in his editorial work, and it was performed in a cleanly and conscientious manner. It was marked with amiability, versatility, good sense and comprehensive grasp of every subject.... Free from improper motives himself, he was slow to suspect or discover deceit and trickery in others.... Even in controversy he was eminently fair and temperate and just.”—[Baltimore Underwriter.
“The universal esteem in which C. C. Hine was held is voiced in the comment in the insurance press upon his high ideals of living and the able and fearless manner in which he represented insurance thought in his writings.... In speaking of the insurance press, he referred to its editors as being the ‘high priests’ of the insurance business.”—[Standard.
“A clean and lovely soul the old man was, fighting wrong and supporting justice with honorable weapons. He well fulfilled the motto of Lincoln: ‘With charity for all and malice toward none.’“—[United States Review, April 29th.
“The ledger of his life is full of good deeds.”—[Views.
“The passing away of Charles C. Hine, the widely respected editor and publisher of the Insurance Monitor, of New York, has brought sadness and a sense of personal loss to thousands of hearts. He was an upright man, a forceful character in the world, and in many respects lived an ideal life. His career was one of usefulness, and the world is better off because he lived. It was his good fortune to be favored in liberal measure with those endowments which won and retained the cordial regard of the multitudes who knew him. A man of inflexible integrity of character, of superior mental equipment, and a disposition which constantly inspired him to modest acts of helpfulness and sunshine, he was more than respected—he was beloved. As journalist, publisher, author and public speaker, he stood in the foremost rank in the insurance circles of the United States, and he constantly dignified and took pride in his work.”—[United States Review, April 22d.
“The personality of him who was affectionately known as the ‘Patriarch’ covered more than literary talent, more than business ability, more than professional strength. It embraced, as many of us can testify, an instinctive and undeviating support of the highest ideals of integrity, honesty and honor.... His heart was kindly, and his life pure and upright. As a friend and neighbor he was sympathetic and helpful; as a counsellor of those in need his aid was unstinted.”—[Resolutions adopted by the Fire Underwriters’ Association of the Pacific.
“‘A good name is better than riches’, says the proverbialist of the Old Scripture, and the truth of the saying is never more forcibly illustrated than when death has called away the possessor of such a name.
“Nothing is said of the amount of money accumulated by Mr. Hine during his lifetime, but all are eloquent in praise of his integrity, his courage in well-doing, his broad charity and his devotion to the cause of righteousness and truth.... Colonel Hine was a rare man, one whose example shines like a beacon above the rocks and shoals of commercial life, reminding those still voyaging there that deeds ‘are the harvest of eternity’.”—[Vindicator.
“We know that he does not participate in our proceedings to-day, but who dares to say that, from beyond the purple and the gold, his keen eye is not watching us, and that his old-time smile does not beam from his pale, thoughtful, scholarly, beautiful face, as we have so often seen it do at these meetings. Such a man as he was, with the work he did, and the example he gave, needs no eulogy. Let us then try to tell, in plain and simple language, the story of his life, which was like a beautiful road, strewn on either side with flowers and fruits, with birds and butterflies....
“Charles C. Hine was more than we have hastily described him as being. He was something besides a telegraph operator, an underwriter, an editor, a business man, a lecturer. He was a great man with a great soul; a good man with a good heart; a strong man with a strong mind. He was a man who had traveled as far as the sun and yet never gotten away from his childhood. He was the Doctor Johnson in whatever circle he chose to move, and yet as modest as a girl. He was the pride and glory of a great profession and yet as unassuming as a bashful boy. He remembered the love of his father, the caresses of his mother and the kisses of his sister—contact with the world did not harden his heart. He married the woman he loved, and for over forty years lived a perfect wedded life. He was a consistent member of the church and for thirty years the superintendent of a Sunday School. He was a working officer of the International Law & Order League. Three or four years ago, at Chautauqua, he addressed an audience of over five thousand persons. To measure the good he did in the world would be as impossible as to estimate the blessing of the sun’s rays. He became an old man on earth and continued to believe in God, in charity, in love, in goodness. He found inspiration in the stars, music in the birds, wisdom in babes, and peace in the Bible. He believed in women and trusted men.—[Memorial address of I. W. Holman.