Necrology
Willard Neil Belden, Jr. '53
Aug. 24, 1931-Feb. 19, 2021
Willard “Binx” Neil Belden, Jr. ’53, P’86, GP’03 died on Feb. 19, 2021. A native of Niagara Falls, N.Y., he was born on Aug. 24, 1931, and came to Hamilton in 1949 from Niagara Falls High School. On the Hill, he was a member of the Emerson Literary Society and focused his academic work in human studies. He played basketball his sophomore year and was a member of the Economics Club in his final two years. His reputation was encapsulated by a classmate in the following pair of laudatory sentences: “He can blow a mean B flat tenor saxophone while giving you the square of the hypotenuse. Binx has the most complete collection of jazz records on the Hill, but his subtle humor is really classical.”
Among his earliest accomplishments at the College was defeating “some guy” at “H-O-R-S-E” on the basketball court, and then asking his opponent if he was excited about being a first-year Hamilton student. “Not really,” was the response. “I’m Don Jones” (then the basketball coach). Looking back after 40 years, Binx observed that among the outstanding classes and teachers from whom he benefited, “Willard ‘Swampy’ Marsh’s classes in public speaking made a lifelong impression.”
Following graduation, Binx enlisted in the Army in 1953. He was stationed at Fort Carson in Colorado and was discharged two years later with the rank of corporal. In the fall of 1955, he entered Cornell University’s law school, earning his LLB in 1958. He returned to Niagara Falls to open a general legal practice that he would continue to pursue for the next 40 years. Concurrently, he carried on the family business, Belden Reality and Insurance.
In 1959, he married Dolores M. “Dodie” Burke of St. Catherine’s, Ontario, and they made their home in the Niagara Falls area, in nearby Lewiston, N.Y. Not surprisingly, Binx served his community in a variety of ways. He was a member of the Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center’s board of trustees, the Niagara University advisory board, and the board of governors of the Niagara Falls Country Club.
Following retirement in 1999, Binx and Dodie divided their time between Niagara Falls and Naples, Fla. He continued to pursue his interest in jazz as well as growing eggplants, occasionally playing a few hands of blackjack at the Seneca Niagara Casino, golfing, and surfing the internet.
Binx was a loyal alumnus, making regular donations to the Hamilton Fund as well as to several capital campaigns and to the Winton and Patricia Tolles Scholarship. He did so, as he explained in 2003, because, “my years at Hamilton … provided me with a multitude of interests, and I attribute this to Hamilton’s unparalleled liberal arts program.”
Willard N. Belden, Jr. was predeceased by his wife, who died in 2009. He is survived by three daughters and a son, Williard N. Belden III ’86; six grandchildren, including Julie Ann Rizzo ’03; and six great-grandchildren.
