Charles Hamilton Sabin (1868-1933) was elected to The Lambs in 1916 as a Non-Professional member. He was Chairman of the Guaranty Trust Co. Sabin was a strong opponent of Prohibition, which probably made him a very popular member of the Club.
Sabin was educated at the Greylock Institute, South Williamstown, Mass., graduating in 1885. Family finances did not allow for college, so Charles went to work as a flour salesman in Albany, New York. In 1887, Sabin began his career in banking as a baseball “ringer” for Albany’s National Commercial Bank. The team, lacking a pitcher, hired Sabin on the eve of an important game. He won the game and stayed in banking for the rest of his life. Within ten years, he came to New York as President of the National Copper Bank, which merged with the Mechanics and Metals National Bank. He joined Guaranty Trust as a vice president in 1910, later becoming president.
After six years as president, Sabin was elected Chairman of the Board, and his brother-in-law, William C. Potter, was elected President. Sabin received an honorary degree from Williams College, making him a member of the class of 1915.
In 1916 Sabin was divorced from Mabel Whitney after 19 years. On December 28, 1916, he married Pauline Morton Smith. During their marriage, Charles and Pauline built Bayberry Land in Southampton, Long Island, their country estate. They maintained two other residences: an apartment at 1 Sutton Place South, and a 1,961-acre plantation, The Oaks, in Goose Creek, South Carolina.
Pauline Sabin founded the Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform (WONPR). Like his wife, Sabin was vehemently opposed to Prohibition, and served as treasurer of the Association Against the Prohibitions Amendment. Unlike his wife, Sabin was a Democrat who actively supported Alfred E. Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1931 he headed the Democratic Victory Campaign in New York.
Charles H. Sabin died at Bayberry Land of cerebral hemorrhage just two months before Repeal. He is interred in Southampton Cemetery in Suffolk County, New York.