'A Wonderful Resource'

In accepting that position, Mr. Debevoise, a lanky six-footer who loved trout fishing and hiking in the mountains, spoke of the value that wilderness living might have for the youngsters. ''Developing a love of the great outdoors is a marvelous thing,'' he said. ''To me it has become a wonderful resource that I have drawn on all my life.''

Born in Manhattan on Dec. 14, 1899, and named after his great-great grandfather, Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin, Mr. Debevoise graduated from the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Conn., in 1917. Shortly after graduation, he enlisted in the Army and eventually attained the rank of second lieutenant.

Mr. Debevoise graduated from Yale University in 1921 and from the Harvard University Law School in 1925. He immediately entered practice in Manhattan in the office of his father and, later, was an associate in a firm headed by John W. Davis, the Democratic candidate for president in 1924.

In 1931, with a total of $2,366 in their account, Mr. Debevoise and William E. Stevenson, both then 31, formed a partnership under the name Debevoise & Stevenson. The firm soon enjoyed success when it was named counsel to the trustee in the bankruptcy proceedings involving the collapsed empire of Ivar Kreuger, the ''Swedish Match King.'' Mr. Kreuger, head of the International Match Company, killed himself in February 1932, in what was a sensational end to his tangled and well-publicized financial affairs.

A Hunt for Communists

Later, Mr. Debevoise would play a leading role in the firm's representation of Alger Hiss during the former State Department official's two trials for perjury in the post-war hunt for Communists in government. In the early 1950's, Mr. Debevoise served as legal adviser for the Ford Motor Company as it became a public corporation.