William Jewett Tucker gave him the following testimonial: "Of the men with whom I came into professional as well as personal relation, no one awakened or exerted so great an influence over me as Roswell D. Hitchcock...Dr. Hitchcock was a man of wide and genuine learning, but still more remarkable for his mental and spiritual insight. He saw religious truth in clear perspective and in just proportion. As a church historian, he knew and honored the historic Church, but he lived in the full freedom of the spirit. His independence could rise, if there was occasion, into courage. He was broadly and fearlessly progressive. Personally he was capable of sharing the riches of his mind and heart. His friendship had the reality and the charm of intimacy. Though several years my senior he never allowed the intervening years or the wisdom for which these stood, to create the slightest impression of conscious superiority. He was to me a most lovable man, not in spite of his great intellectual gifts, but because of them. I felt whenever I talked with him that I had access to the whole man. It was to me of great significance in the following years that this intimacy of personal friendship was in no sense dependent on frequent contact. The letters which came to me at Andover until his death bore the marks of the same rare and quickening friendship."[4]
