Owl Club (Harvard)

The Owl Club is an all-male final club at Harvard University.

The Owl Clubhouse

History

The Owl Club was founded in 1896 by Reginald Mansfield Johnson, Malcolm Scollay Greenough, Jr., Frazier Curtis, Preston Player, Charles Clifford Payson, Austen Fox Riggs, and Dudley Hall Bradlee, Jr. Originally established as a secret society, the Club held its meetings in Cambridge's Polo Club Alley before purchasing land on the corner of Holyoke Street and Holyoke Place in 1901.

In 1905, architect James Purdon of Purdon and Little drew up plans for the Georgian clubhouse, and on June 24 of that year the cornerstone of the present clubhouse was laid. The new building was formally opened on March 24, 1906, the tenth anniversary of the Club.

In 1916, it was voted to officially change the name from “Phi Delta Psi Club” to “Owl Club”. The club had become informally known as The Owl as an abbreviation of its Greek name, Ἀυλὸς χαὶ Ἔκπωμα.

Notable members

• Archibald C. Coolidge, Harvard Professor and Diplomat (Honorary Member).
• Robert W. Bliss, American Diplomat (Honorary Member).
• Edward B. Cole ' 02 — United States Marine Corps Major, expert on machine guns, casualty at the Battle of Belleau Wood[1]
• Harry Elkins Widener '07 — Benefactor and namesake, Widener Library of Harvard University; casualty on the wreck of the RMS Titanic ocean liner.[2]
• George Minot, '08 — Winner of the 1934 Nobel Prize in Medicine.
• George Biddle, '08 - American Muralist and Painter.
• Hanford MacNider, '11 - United States Army General and Diplomat.
• Bobby Jones, '24 — Amateur golfer and winner of the Grand Slam in 1930; Founder of Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters Tournament.[3]
• William Gurdon Saltonstall, '28 - American educator, ninth Principal of Phillips Exeter Academy.
• Theodore Roosevelt III, '36 - Grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt.
• Robert G. Stone, Jr., '45 — Former Chairman of the Harvard Corporation.[4]
• J. William Middendorf, III, '47 — U.S. Secretary of the Navy under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford from 1974 to 1977; U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands and Organization of American States.[5]
• Edward "Ted" Kennedy, '54 - '56—U.S. Senator from Massachusetts.[6]
• Richard Darman, '64 - Senior Advisor to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
• Charles Hamlin, '70 - Member of 1968 US Olympic Crew Team.
• Ford M. Fraker, '71 - U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; President of the Middle East Policy Council.
• Richard Cashin, '75 - Member of 1976 US Olympic Crew Team.
• Christopher Wood, '75 - Member of 1976 US Olympic Crew Team.
• Alan Shealy, '75 - Member of 1976 US Olympic Crew Team.
• Charles Veley, '87 — World's Most-Traveled Man.[7]

Notes

1. Howe, Mark Anthony De Wolfe (1922). Memoirs of the Harvard Dead in the War Against Germany, Vol 3. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
2. "Widener's Wish Fulfilled" (PDF). The New York Times. 4 October 1912.
3. Curt Sampson (2005). The Slam: Bobby Jones and the Price of Glory. Harvard University Press.
4. "Robert G. Stone Jr. '45-'47, Who Led Panel That Picked Summers as Chief, Dies at Age 83", The Harvard Crimson, Thursday, April 20, 2006
5. Student Council of Harvard College (1915). Harvard University Register, vol 42.
6. "Sorry Clubbie", The Harvard Crimson, Wednesday, May 26, 1965
7. "Charles Veley". Retrieved 8 May 2011.

References

• Owl Club of Harvard College, Membership Directory, 1998, Puritan Press, New Hampshire

Further reading

• Burggraf, Charles H., The Owl club; a comedy drama in three acts, satirizing secret societies, Albany, OR: Smiley, printer, 1900.
• Owl Club of Harvard College: founded in 1896, Crimson Printing Co., 1966