SKULL & BONES
Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 3:09 am
Skull and Bones is an undergraduate senior or secret society at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. It is a traditional peer society to Scroll and Key and Wolf's Head, as the three senior class 'landed societies' at Yale.The society's alumni organization, which owns the society's real property and oversees the organization, is the Russell Trust Association, named for William Huntington Russell,[1] who co-founded Skull and Bones with classmate Alphonso Taft. The Russell Trust was founded by Russell and Daniel Coit Gilman, member of Skull and Bones and later president of the University of California, first president of Johns Hopkins University, and the founding president of the Carnegie Institution.The society is known informally as "Bones", and members are known as "Bonesmen"Skull and Bones was founded in 1832 after a dispute among Yale's debating societies, Linonia, Brothers in Unity, and the Calliopean Society, over that season's Phi Beta Kappa awards; its original name was "the Order of Skull and Bones."[1][3]The only chapter of Skull and Bones created outside Yale was a chapter at Wesleyan University in 1870. That chapter, the Beta of Skull & Bones, became independent in 1872 in a dispute over control over creating additional chapters; the Beta Chapter reconstituted itself as Theta Nu Epsilon.[4][5][6]The first extended description of Skull and Bones, published in 1871 by Lyman Bagg in his book Four Years at Yale, noted that "the mystery now attending its existence forms the one great enigma which college gossip never tires of discussing."[7] Brooks Mather Kelley attributed the secrecy of Yale senior societies to the fact that underclassmen members of freshman, sophomore, and junior class societies remained on campus following their membership, while seniors naturally left.[8]Skull and Bones owns an island in the St. Lawrence River in upstate New York named Deer Island:The 40 acre retreat is intended to give Bonesmen an opportunity to "get together and rekindle old friendships." A century ago the island sported tennis courts and its softball fields were surrounded by rhubarb plants and gooseberry bushes. Catboats waited on the lake. Stewards catered elegant meals. Although each new Skull and Bones member still visits Deer Island, the place leaves something to be desired. "Now it is just a bunch of burned-out stone buildings," a patriarch sighs. "It's basically ruins." Another Bonesman says that to call the island "rustic" would be to glorify it. "It's a dump, but it's beautiful."—Alexandra Robbins, TheAtlantic.comOnce the pinnacle of the college's social system, the society remained central to campus life through the 1950s, but since then some say it has lost much of its luster.The TombExterior view of Skull and Bones, 64 High Street, New Haven, early 20th centuryThe Skull & Bones Hall is otherwise known as the "Tomb". The architectural attribution of the original hall is in dispute. The architect was possibly Alexander Jackson Davis (1803–1892) or Henry Austin (1804–1891). Architectural historian Patrick Pinnell includes an in-depth discussion of the dispute over the identity of the original architect in his 1999 history of Yale's campus.[14]The building was built in three phases: in 1856 the first wing was built, in 1903 the second wing, and in 1911, Davis-designed Neo-Gothic towers from a previous building were added at the rear garden. The front and side facades are of Portland brownstone and in an Egypto-Doric style.The 1911 additions of towers in the rear created a small enclosed courtyard in the rear of the building, designed by Evarts Tracy and Edgerton Swartwout, Tracy and Swartwout, New York.[15] Evarts was not a Bonesman, but his paternal grandmother Martha Sherman Evarts and maternal grandmother Mary Evarts were the sisters of William Maxwell Evarts (S&B 1837). Pinnell speculates whether the re-use of the Davis towers in 1911 was evidence suggesting that Davis did the original building; conversely, Austin was responsible for the architecturally similar brownstone Egyptian Revival gates, built 1845, of the Grove Street Cemetery, to the north of campus. Also discussed by Pinnell is the "tomb's" aesthetic place in relation to its neighbors, including the Yale University Art Gallery.[16] New Hampshire landscape architects Saucier & Flynn designed the wrought-iron fence that currently surrounds a portion of the complex in the late 1990s.Skull and Bones has developed a reputation with some as having a membership that is heavily tilted towards the "Power Elite".[18] Regarding the qualifications for membership, Lanny Davis, writing in the 1968 Yale yearbook, wrote:If the society had a good year, this is what the "ideal" group will consist of: a football captain; a Chairman of the Yale Daily News; a conspicuous radical; a Whiffenpoof; a swimming captain; a notorious drunk with a 94 average; a film-maker; a political columnist; a religious group leader; a Chairman of the Lit; a foreigner; a ladies' man with two motorcycles; an ex-service man; a negro, if there are enough to go around; a guy nobody else in the group had heard of, ever ... "[19]Like other Yale senior societies, for much of its history Skull and Bones membership was almost exclusively limited to white Protestant males. While Yale itself had exclusionary polities at various times during its history, the senior societies were even more exclusionary.[20][21] Catholics had some success attaining membership in such groups; Jews less so.[21] Sports was the means by which some of these excluded groups eventually entered Skull and Bones, through its practice of tapping standout athletes. Star football players were the first Jewish (Al Hessberg, class of 1938) and African-American (Levi Jackson, class of 1950, who turned down the invitation) students to be tapped for Skull and Bones.[20]Yale became coeducational in 1969, yet Skull & Bones remained all-male until 1992. An attempt to tap women for membership by the Bones class of 1971 was opposed by Bones alumni, who dubbed them the "bad club" and quashed their attempt. "The issue", as it came to be called by Bonesmen, was debated for decades.[22] The class of 1991 tapped seven female members for membership in the next year's class, causing conflict with their own alumni association, the Russell Trust.[23] The Trust changed the locks on the "Tomb"; the Bonesmen had to meet at the building of Manuscript Society.[23] A mail-in vote by members decided 368-320 to permit going co-ed, but a group of alumni led by William F. Buckley obtained a temporary restraining order to block the move, arguing that a formal change in bylaws was needed.[23][24] Other alumni, such as John Kerry and R. Inslee Clark, Jr., spoke out in favor of admitting women, and the dispute even ended up on The New York Times editorial page.[23][25] A second vote of alumni in October 1991 agreed to accept the Class of 1992, and the lawsuit was dropped.[23][26]Like its counterparts, Bones has diversified further its membership, similarly with the other six landed societies at Yale. Although, members have noted that no longer do they simply represent the strongest leaders on campus.[27] As one member of the 1991 class wrote to alumni, "Being a part of Bones is often an embarrassment, a source of ridicule and occasionally a good way to lose a friend ... Very rarely is the Bones still seen as an honor, and never is it seen to represent the mainstream of Yale."[28]Judith Ann Schiff, Chief Research Archivist at the Yale University Library, has written: "The names of its members weren't kept secret — that was an innovation of the 1970s — but its meetings and practices were."[29]While resourceful researchers could assemble member data from these original sources, in 1985 an anonymous source leaked rosters to Antony C. Sutton, who wrote a book on the group titled America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones.[30] This membership information was kept privately for over 15 years, as Sutton feared that the photocopied pages could somehow identify the member who leaked it. The information was finally reformatted as an appendix in the book Fleshing out Skull and Bones, a compilation edited by Kris Millegan, published in 2003.Among prominent alumni are former President and Supreme Court Justice William Howard Taft (son of a founder of the society); former Presidents George H. W. Bush and his son, George W. Bush; Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart; [31] James Jesus Angleton, "mother of the Central Intelligence Agency"; Henry Stimson, U.S. Secretary of War (1940-1945); and United States Secretary of Defense, Robert A. Lovett, who directed the Korean War.Senator John Kerry; Stephen A. Schwarzman, founder of Blackstone; Austan Goolsbee, Chairman of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers; Harold Stanley, co-founder of Morgan Stanley; and Frederick W. Smith, founder of Fedex, are all reported to be members.MEMBER LIST FOR THE 20th centuryFOR THE COMPLETE LIST LOOK HERE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sk ... sFrederick Baldwin Adams (1900), railroad executive[52]John Walter Cross (1900), architect[3]:86Ashley Day Leavitt (1900), Congregational minister, Harvard Congregational Church, Brookline, Massachusetts, frequent lecturer and public speaker[4]:175Percy Rockefeller (1900), director of Brown Brothers Harriman, Standard Oil, and Remington Arms[3]:165[30]Charles Edward Adams (1904), director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York[53]Russell Cheney (1904), American painter and noted portrait artist.[3]:86Thomas Day Thacher (1904), US District Court judge, Solicitor General[3]:183[4]:183Edwin Sheldon Whitehouse (1905), U.S. Foreign Service Officer, father of Charles S. Whitehouse[citation needed]John Gillespie Magee (1906), Yale Chaplain, documenter of the Rape of Nanking[11]:205Foster Rockwell (1906), All-America football player and coach[54]:116William McCormick Blair (1907), American financier, heir to the McCormick reaper fortune[55]Hugh Smith Knox (1907), All-America football player[56]:102Samuel Finley Brown Morse (1907), developer and conservationist, All-America football player[11]:206Lucius Horatio Biglow (1908), All-America football player and coach[4]:189Charles Seymour (1908), President of Yale (1937–1951), founding member of The Council on Foreign Relations[3]:127, 147[30]Harold Stanley (1908), co-founder of Morgan Stanley[57]Harvey Hollister Bundy (1909), Assistant Secretary of State (1931–1933)[3]:183Allen Trafford Klots (1909), New York City lawyer and president of the New York City Bar Association, partner at Winthrop & Stimson[3]:183–4[edit]1910sArchibald MacLeish (Bones 1915), poet, diplomat, three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and Librarian of CongressSenator Prescott Bush (Bones 1916) has long been rumored to have played a role in Skull and Bones' alleged theft of the skull of Native American leader Geronimo.[3]:144–6Edward Harris Coy (1910), College Football Hall of Fame player[56]:107–8Albert DeSilver (1910), co-founder American Civil Liberties Union[22]:1442George Leslie Harrison (1910), President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York[3][58]Robert Alphonso Taft (1910), US Senator from Ohio[3]:126[30][58]Robert Abbe Gardner (1912), two-time U.S. Amateur-winning golfer[59]:142Gerald Clery Murphy (1912), painter[59]:237Alfred Cowles III (1913), economist, founder of the Cowles Commission[60]Averell Harriman (1913), businessman, founding partner in Harriman Brothers & Company and later Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., U.S. Ambassador and Secretary of Commerce, Governor of New York, Chairman and CEO of the Union Pacific Railroad, Brown Brothers & Harriman, and the Southern Pacific Railroad[3]:127, 150–1Henry Holman Ketcham (1914), College Football Hall of Fame[61]:218Edwin Arthur Burtt (1915), philosopher[62]:983Archibald MacLeish (1915), poet and diplomat[3]:185, 187–9Wesley Marion Oler, Jr. (1916), American baseball player and track and field athlete, competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics[63]:171–2Howard Phelps Putnam (1916), poet[3]:155Donald Ogden Stewart (1916), author and screenwriter, Academy Award-winner for The Philadelphia Story[3]:127[30]Prescott Bush (1917), founding partner in Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., US Senator from Connecticut[3]:126, 144–5E. Roland Harriman (1917), co-founder Harriman Brothers & Company[64]Harry William LeGore (1917), All-America college football player[65]H. Neil Mallon (1917), CEO of Dresser Industries[3]:126, 145, 168Kenneth Farrand Simpson (1917), member of the United States House of Representatives from New York[30][21]:144Howard Malcolm Baldrige (1918), US Representative from Nebraska[66]F. Trubee Davison (1918), WWI aviator, Assistant US Secretary of War, New York State Representative, Director of Personnel at the CIA[3]:108, 187[67][68]John Chipman Farrar (1918), publisher, founder of Farrar & Rinehart and Farrar, Straus and Giroux[3]:127Artemus Lamb Gates (1918), businessman, US Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air[64]Robert A. Lovett (1918), US Secretary of Defense[3]:184–8[69]Charles Phelps Taft II (1918), son of President William Howard Taft, Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio[70]John Martin Vorys (1918), US Representative from Ohio[66][71]:427Alexander Agnew McCormick, Jr. (1919), US Navy officer, namesake of the USS McCormick (DD-223)[2][edit]1920sLewis Greenleaf Adams (1920), architect[2][72]Briton Hadden (1920), co-founder of Time-Life Enterprises[3]:127, 150Francis Thayer Hobson (1920), chair of William Morrow[2][72]David Sinton Ingalls (1920), WWI Navy Flying Ace, Ohio State Representative, Assistant Secretary of the Navy[64]Henry Luce (1920), co-founder of Time-Life Enterprises[3]:109–10Charles Harvey Bradley, Jr. (1921), businessman[73]Stanley Woodward (1922), US Foreign Service officer, State Department Chief of Protocol, US Ambassador to Canada[74]John Sherman Cooper (1923), US Senator from Kentucky[75]:19Russell Wheeler Davenport (1923), editor of Fortune magazine; created Fortune 500 list[76]F. O. Matthiessen (1923), historian, literary critic[3]:126Edwin Foster Blair (1924), lawyer[77]Walter Edwards Houghton (1924), historian of Victorian literature, compiler of The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, 1824–1900[77][78]Charles Merville Spofford (1924), lawyer and NATO official[77]John Allen Miner Thomas (1924), author[28]:139Marvin Allen Stevens (1925), orthopedic surgeon, College Football Hall of Fame player and coach[79]James Jeremiah Wadsworth (1927), diplomat, US Ambassador to the UN[80]George Herbert Walker, Jr. (1927), financier and co-founder of the New York Mets; uncle to President George Herbert Walker Bush[3]:164John Rockefeller Prentice (1928), laywer and cattle breeder[81]Lanny Ross (1928), singer.[81][30][82]Granger Kent Costikyan (1929), partner Brown Brothers Harriman[83]George Crile, Jr. (1929), surgeon[84]:50Ralph Delahaye Paine, Jr. (1929), editor and publisher (Fortune)[85][edit]1930sCharles Alderson Janeway (1930), Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School[86]H. J. Heinz II (1931), Heir to H. J. Heinz Company; father of H. John Heinz III[3]:174John Mercer Walker, Sr. (1931), physician, investment banker[3]:164Frederick Baldwin Adams, Jr. (1932), bibliophile, director of the Pierpont Morgan Library[87]Samuel Hazard Gillespie Jr. (1932), U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, senior counsel at Davis Polk & Wardwell[88]Tex McCrary (1932), journalist, public relations and political strategist to President Eisenhower[3]:125[89]Eugene O'Neill, Jr. (1932), professor of Greek literature, son of Eugene O'Neill[33]:94Francis Judd Cooke (1933), composer[90]Samuel Carnes Collier (1935), advertising, racecar driver[33]Lyman Spitzer (1935), theoretical physicist and namesake of the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope[91]Sonny Tufts (1935), actor[92]Jonathan Brewster Bingham (1936), U.S. Representative (D-New York)[3]:165Brendan Gill (1936), author and New Yorker contributor[3]:127John Hersey (1936), author[3]:127John Merrill Knapp (1936), musicologist, professor at Princeton University[2]William Horsley Orrick, Jr. (1937), United States federal judge, brother of Andrew Downey Orrick[93]Potter Stewart (1937), U.S. Supreme Court Justice[3]:127, 171[93]J. Richardson Dilworth (1938), Rockefeller family lawyer[94]Clinton Frank (1938), advertising, College Football Hall of Fame and Heisman Trophy-winning player[95]Albert Hessberg II (1938), lawyer, first Jewish member of Skull and Bones[96][97]William P. Bundy (1939), State Department liaison for the Bay of Pigs invasion, brother of McGeorge Bundy[3]:186William Welch Kellogg (1939), climatologist, associate director National Center for Atmospheric Research[98][edit]1940sMcGeorge Bundy (1940), Special Assistant for National Security Affairs; National Security Advisor; Professor of History, brother of William Bundy[3]:53Andrew Downey Orrick (1940), acting chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission[99]Barry Zorthian (1941), American diplomat, most notably press officer in Saigon for 4-1/2 years during Vietnam War[3]:173[100][101]David Acheson (1943), author, lawyer, son of Dean Acheson[3]:188Harold Harris Healy, Jr. (1943), lawyer, partner Debevoise & Plimpton[2]James L. Buckley (1944), U.S. Senator (R-New York 1971–1977) and brother of William F. Buckley, Jr.[3]:168, 174[102][103]John Bannister Goodenough (1944), solid-state physicist at the University of Texas at Austin[104]Townsend Walter Hoopes II (1944), historian, Under Secretary of the Air Force (1967–69)[3]:188William Singer Moorhead (1944), US Representative from Pennsylvania[71][105]James Whitmore (1944), actor[106]John Chafee (1947), U.S. Senator, Secretary of the Navy and Governor of Rhode Island, father of Lincoln Chafee[3]:168, 171Josiah Augustus Spaulding (1947), lawyer, partner Bingham Dana & Gould[107]Charles S. Whitehouse (1947), CIA Agent (1947–1956), U.S. Ambassador to Laos and Thailand in the 1970s.[3]:174Thomas William Ludlow Ashley (1948), US Representative from Ohio[3]:167–72George H. W. Bush (1948), 41st President of the United States, 11th Director of Central Intelligence, son of Prescott Bush, father of George W. Bush. His Skull and Bones nickname was "Magog".[3]:167–8[108]William Sloane Coffin (1949), CIA agent (1950–1953), clergyman and peace activist[3]:127, 196Daniel Pomeroy Davison (1949), banker, president United States Trust Corporation[109]Tony Lavelli (1949), basketball player[3]:169[110]David McCord Lippincott (1949), novelist and composer[111]Charles Edwin Lord II (1949), banker, Vice-Chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States[112][edit]1950sWilliam F. Buckley, Jr. (1950), founder of National Review,[3]:41 former CIA officerWilliam Henry Draper III (1950), Chair of United Nations Development Programme and Export-Import Bank of the United States[3]:174–5, 179Evan G. Galbraith (1950), US Ambassador to France; managing director of Morgan Stanley[3]:181, 187[113]Thomas Henry Guinzburg (1950), president Viking Press[114]Victor William Henningsen, Jr. (1950), president Henningsen Foods Inc.[115]Raymond Price (1951), speechwriter for Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Bush.[3]:173Fergus Reid Buckley (1952), author and public speaker[2]Charles Sherman Haight, Jr. (1952), Connecticut District Court judge[2]Jonathan James Bush (1953), banker, son of Prescott Bush[3]:145, 179William H. Donaldson (1953), appointed chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by George W. Bush; founding dean of Yale School of Management; co-founder of DLJ investment firm[3]:166, 173[116]John Birnie Marshall (1953), Olympic medal-winning swimmer[2]James Price McLane (1953), Olympic medal-winning swimmer[117]George Herbert Walker III (1953), US Ambassador to Hungary[3]:164David McCullough (1955), U.S. historian; two-time Pulitzer Prize winner[3]:127Caldwell Blakeman Esselstyn, Jr. (1956), Olympic medal-winning rower, physician, author[118]Jack Edwin McGregor (1956), Pennsylvania State Senator, founder Pittsburgh Penguins[106]R. Inslee Clark, Jr. (1957), former Director of Undergraduate Admissions for Yale College; former Headmaster of Horace Mann School[3]:153, 176Linden Stanley Blue (1958), aviation executive[2]Robert Willis Morey, Jr. (1958), Olympic medal-winning rower[2]Stephen Adams (1959), American businessman, founder Adams Outdoor[3]:180Winston Lord (1959), Chairman of Council on Foreign Relations; Ambassador to China; Assistant U.S. Secretary of State[3]:174–5, 189[113][edit]1960sJohn Kerry (Bones 1966) faced off against George W. Bush (Bones 1968) in the 2004 US presidential election, the first time two Bonesmen had run against one another for that office.[119]David George Ball (1960), Assistant US Secretary of Labor[3]:1960Eugene Lytton Scott (1960), tennis player, founder Tennis Week[120]Michael Johnson Pyle (1960), National Football League player[2]John Joseph Walsh, Jr. (1961), art historian, director J. Paul Getty Museum[121]William Hamilton (1962), New Yorker cartoonist[122]David L. Boren (1963), Governor of Oklahoma, U.S. Senator, President of the University of Oklahoma[3]:124, 158[123]Michael Gates Gill (1963), advertising executive, author[124]William Dawbney Nordhaus (1963), Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University[2]Orde Musgrave Coombs (1965), author, editor, first black member of Skull and Bones[125]John Shattuck (1965), US diplomat and ambassador, university administrator[106]John Forbes Kerry (1966), U.S. Senator (D-Massachusetts 1985–present); Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts 1983–1985; 2004 Democratic Presidential nominee[3]:112David Rumsey (1966), founder of the David Rumsey Map Collection and president of Cartography Associates[2]Frederick Wallace Smith (1966), founder of FedEx[3]:172, 180–1[126]David Thorne (1966), United States Ambassador to Italy[3]:85Victor Ashe (1967), Tennessee State Senator and Representative, Mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee, US Ambassador to Poland[3]:181–2[127]Roy Leslie Austin (1968), appointed ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago by George W. Bush[3]:177, 181–2[128]George W. Bush (1968), grandson of Prescott Bush; son of George H. W. Bush; 46th Governor of Texas; 43rd President of the United States. His nickname was "Temporary" since he failed to choose a name.[3]:175–8Rex William Cowdry (1968), Acting Director National Institute of Mental Health (1994–96)[3]:177Robert McCallum, Jr (1968), Ambassador to Australia[3]:177, 181[129]Don Schollander (1968), developer; author; US Olympic Hall of Fame inductee; four-time Olympic Gold medallist swimmer[3]:126, 177Brian John Dowling (1969), National Football League player, inspiration for B.D. in Doonesbury[2]Stephen Allen Schwarzman (1969), co-founder of The Blackstone Group[130][131]Douglas Preston Woodlock (1969), US federal judge[132][edit]1970sCharles Herbert Levin (1971), actor[2]George Lewis (1974), trombonist and composer [133]Christopher Taylor Buckley (1975), author, editor, chief speechwriter for Vice President George H. W. Bush[3]:173[edit]1980sRobert William Kagan (1980), co-founder of the Project for the New American Century[2]Michael Cerveris (1983), American singer, guitarist and actor[2]Earl G. Graves, Jr. (1984), president of Black Enterprise[134]Edward S. Lampert (1984), founder of ESL Investments; chairman of Sears Holdings Corporation[3]:180[134]James Emanuel Boasberg (1985), judge, United States District Court for the District of Columbia[106]James A. Wade Woodbury (1986), Entrepreneur, Canadian Entrepreneur, EconomistPaul Giamatti (1989), Academy Award-nominated American actor[135][edit]1990s to presentDana Milbank (1990), political reporter for The Washington Post[136][137][138]Austan Goolsbee (1991), staff director to and chief economist of President Barack Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board[139]Maginious Farley/Maginious Eugene (1992), Political Science Cambridge UniversityCatherine Moira. Sharkey (1992), Law professor New York University School of Law, clerked for Justice David H. Souter of the United States Supreme Court[