Fly Club

The Fly Club is a final club, traditionally "punching" (inviting to stand for election) male undergraduates of Harvard College during their sophomore or junior year. Undergraduate and graduate members participate in club activities.

History

Founded in 1836 as a literary society by the editors of Harvardiana , the club was granted a charter by the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity in 1837 and remained a chapter until surrendering its charter in 1865. With the graduation of the members of the class of 1868, the club was discontinued until 1878, when graduate members, including Edward Everett Hale (class of 1839) and Phillips Brooks (class of 1855), initiated undergraduates from the class of 1879, to whom the old charter was restored.

In 1906, the charter was once again surrendered, and in 1910, the organization officially adopted the name "Fly Club," its unofficial title since 1885. In 1996, the Fly Club merged with the DU Club, another final club, and the combined entity retained the name Fly Club.

Fly Club Medallion of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Symbols

Some sources maintain that the club's name was derived by combining the PH from "Alpha," the l from "Delta," and the i from "Phi," to get "Phli," pronounced "Fly". ^[1]

The club motto, suggested by Prof. Morris H. Morgan (class of 1881) and adopted Feb. 1902, reads DURATURIS HAUD DURIS VINCULIS, an ablative absolute construction translated as "Bonds should be lasting, not chafing or hard."

Fly Club's clubhouse.

Clubhouse

Constructed in 1896, with a brick facade added in 1902, the Fly clubhouse is located at Two Holyoke Place, near Harvard Square, along the "Gold Coast" of formerly private residences that now comprise Harvard's Adams House, completed 1932. ^[2] The Fly sits in front of Harvard's Lowell House (1930), across Mt. Auburn Street from the Harvard Lampoon building (1909).

Fly Club Gate

The Fly Club Gate is located along the exterior of Winthrop House. An English Baroque structure, the gate was built in 1914 by a grant from members of the Fly Club. The Fly's symbol, a "leopard rampant gardant" (known as the "Kitty"), is centered within the ironwork above the entry. Inscribed below is a dedication: "For Friendships Made in College the Fly Club in Gratitude has Built this Gate." ^[3]

Notable members

Following is a list of notable members of the Fly Club. Member Initiated into the D.U. Club, which merged with the Fly Club in 1996, is indicated with a *.

Academia

• James Bryant Conant* – 26th President of Harvard University ^[4]
• Archibald Cary Coolidge – historian, Harvard professor, first director of the Harvard University Library ^[5]
• Charles William Eliot – 24th President of Harvard University ^[5]
• Samuel Eliot – historian; president of Trinity College, overseer of Harvard University, Boston Public Schools superintendent ^[5]
• Abbott Lawrence Lowell – historian, 25th President of Harvard University ^[6]
• Charles Stearns Wheeler – transcendentalist, noted as inspiration for Henry David Thoreau’s Walden ^{[5] [7]}

Architecture and design

• Herbert Dudley Hale – son of Edward Everett Hale; noted Boston and NYC architect, architect of the Fly's clubhouse at Two Holyoke Place. ^{[8] [9]}
• William Robert Ware – architect, first professor of architecture at MIT, founder of the School of Architecture at Columbia University ^{[5] [10]}

Business

• Charles Francis Adams Jr. – president of the Union Pacific Railroad, president of the American Historical Association, and colonel in the Union Army ^[5]
• Charlie Cheever – co-founder of Quora
• Albert Hamilton Gordon* – Wall Street entrepreneur, Chairman of Kidder Peabody
• George H. Mifflin – president of Houghton Mifflin publishing company
• Louis Kane* – founder of Au Bon Pain bakery and café ^[11]
• Spencer Rascoff – co-founder and former CEO of Zillow
• David Rockefeller* – American banker ^[12]

Entertainment

• Robert Carlock – screenwriter and producer ^[13]
• Fred Gwynne – stage, film, and television actor
• Whit Stillman – writer-director and actor known for Metropolitan , which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay

Law

• Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. – Supreme Court Justice ^{[5] [8]}
• John Codman Ropes – co-founder of law firm Ropes & Grey ^{[5] [8] [10]}

Literature and journalism

• James Russell Lowell – poet, critic, editor, and US ambassador to the Kingdom of Spain and the Court of St. James's ^[8]
• Ernest Thayer – poet, author of "Casey at the Bat" ^[14]
• Evan Thomas – journalist and author ^[15]
• Owen Wister – writer, "father" of western fiction ^{[5] [8]}
• Robert Charles Benchley* – humorist

Military

• Caspar Henry Burton Jr. – volunteered for British Red Cross during World War I; enlisted Royal Fusiliers, British Army; gazetted 4th Battalion, King's (Liverpool) Regiment; transferred to American Army, A.E.F.. Died of wounds received in battle. A Harvard University scholarship is named in his honor. ^{[16] [17]}
• Henry L. Eustis – General in the Union Army during Civil War; dean of Lawrence Scientific School (now the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences) ^{[5] [8]}
• Lionel de Jersey Harvard* – first [collateral] descendant of John Harvard to attend Harvard College, a casualty of World War I. Harvard College's Harvard-Cambridge Fellowship (to Emmanuel College) is named in his honor. ^[18]

Politics

• Charles Francis Adams III – Secretary of the Navy, 1929–1932; skipper of America's Cup defender Resolute , 1920; inductee, America's Cup Hall of Fame ^[5]
• Joseph Hodges Choate – lawyer and diplomat; U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, 1899–1905 ^{[5] [8] [10]}
• Dwight F. Davis – U.S. Secretary of War, 1925–1929; Governor General of the Philippines, 1929–1932; tennis champion ^{[5] [8] [10]}
• Grenville T. Emmet – U.S. Ambassador to Netherlands 1934–1937 and Austria 1937–1937 ^{[5] [8]}
• Charles Fairchild – United States Secretary of the Treasury 1887–1889; Attorney General of New York 1876-1877 ^{[5] [8] [10]}
• Joseph Clark Grew – career diplomat, U.S. Ambassador to Japan 1932–1941, oversaw the development of U.S. Foreign Service ^{[19] [20]}
• Wickham Hoffman – U.S. Minister to Denmark 1883–1885; Colonel in the Union Army ^{[5] [8]}
• Jared Kushner – son-in-law of Donald Trump; Senior White House Adviser ^[21] and head of the White House Office of American Innovation ^{[22] [23]}
• Tony Lake – President Bill Clinton's National Security Advisor ^[4]
• James Russell Lowell – U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Spain and the Court of St. James's, poet, critic, and editor ^[8]
• Deval Patrick – 71st Governor of Massachusetts; quit the club in 1983 ^[24]
• Roger Putnam – Mayor of Springfield, Massachusetts and director of the U.S. Economic Stabilization Administration
• Jay Rockefeller – U.S. Senator from West Virginia ^[25]
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt – 32nd President of the United States ^[8]
• James Roosevelt – U.S. Congressman (CA) ^[26]
• Theodore Roosevelt – 26th President of the United States ^{[5] [8]}
• William Weld – 68th Governor of Massachusetts ^[27]

Religion

• Edward Everett Hale – author, historian, Unitarian minister, Chaplain to the U.S. Senate ^[5]
• Phillips Brooks – clergyman, author, lyricist ^[8]

Science

• Francis Cabot – gardener, horticulturist, chairman of the New York Botanical Garden, and founder of the Garden Conservancy ^[28]
• Michael Clark Rockefeller – amateur anthropologist, disappeared in 1961 during an expedition in the Asmat region of southwestern Netherlands New Guinea. Harvard College's Michael C. Rockefeller Traveling Fellowship is named in his honor.

Sports

• Charles Francis Adams III – skipper of America's Cup defender Resolute , 1920; inductee, America's Cup Hall of Fame; Secretary of the Navy, 1929–1932 ^[5]
• Charles Dudley Daly – college football player and coach who was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame
• Dwight F. Davis – Olympic tennis player; three-time U.S. Open doubles champion; founder of the Davis Cup; International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee ^{[5] [8] [10]}
• W. Palmer Dixon – two-time winner of national squash championship (1925, 1926) ^[29]
• Matt Freese – professional soccer player with the New York City FC
• Henry Thrun – professional ice hockey player for the San Jose Sharks, winner of a gold medal at 2021 World Junior Championship. ^[30]

References

1. Shand-Tucci, Douglass (2001). Harvard University. Princeton University Press. ISBN   1-56898-280-1. p. 101
2. Cambridge Historical Commission, "City of Cambridge, Landmarks and Other Protected Properties" Archived 2010-06-05 at the Wayback Machine , 2009.
3. "The Architecture" Archived 2016-11-09 at the Wayback Machine , Winthrop House (Facilities & History)
4. "Facts on Final Clubs", The Harvard Crimson, March 3, 1999
5. Catalogue of the Alpha Delta Phi Club of Harvard University, 1836–1902. Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press, 1902.
6. Yeomans, Henry (1977). Abbott Lawrence Lowell. Arno Press. ISBN   0-405-10009-4. p.38. "He tried to avoid what he considered Wilson's mistake in alienating them at Princeton, and he accepted honorary membership in the Fly in 1904."
7. Charles Stearns Wheeler (1816-1843). The Walden Woods Project. Retrieved May 16, 2024,
8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Catalogue of the Fly Club of Harvard University, 1836–1911. Camb. (Mass.): The University Press, 1911
9. "Noted Architect Is Dead Herbert Dudley Hale (Dud's father)". Harrisburg Daily Independent. Nov 11, 1908. p. 1. Retrieved May 11, 2021– via newspapers.com.
10. Baird's manual of American college fraternities. Menasha, Wisc.: G. Banta Co. etc.. 1879. pp. 58–60 – via Hathi Trust.
11. "The Final Club Scene" Archived 2012-09-07 at archive.today , Harvard Magazine, May 1997. "...says former D.U. graduate president Louis Kane '53..."
12. "DIMES: Online Collections and Catalog of Rockefeller Archive Center" (PDF). dimes.rockarch.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 11, 2021. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
13. "The Fly Flees From Progress". The Harvard Crimson. 1994-10-04.
14. Gardner, Martin (1995). The Annotated Casey at the Bat: A Collection of Ballads about the Mighty Casey/Third, Revised Edition. Courier Dover Publications. ISBN   0-486-28598-7. p.1
15. "But one prominent alum, Evan Thomas, who is the Washington bureau chief for Newsweek magazine, said that his informal polling of fellow alumni showed strong support for a co-ed Fly." Rimer, Sara. "Harvard Journal; All-Male Club Opens Its Door Warily." The New York Times, October 9, 1993.
16. "Letters of Caspar Henry Burton, Jr." Edited by his brother, Spence Burton, S.S.J.E. Privately printed, 1921. pp. 61-62. "When, on the night before he went out to France as an officer in The King's, Father and Mother asked him what memorial he wished if he were killed, he told them he would like to have a scholarship founded in his memory at Harvard. He wanted it controlled, if possible, by William G. Wendell [Burton's Harvard classmate and Fly brother] and me. He wanted Wendell to represent The Fly and me to represent The Society of St. John the Evangelist...He wished the scholarship to be primarily available for members of my monastic order and members of The Fly. Wendell and I were to arrange that, and I suppose to appoint our successors from members of The Fly and The Society of St. John. Caspar wanted his memorial to be at Harvard, and he said that what he valued most at Harvard were 'Spence's work and The Fly.'"
17. "Corporation Records" in The Harvard Graduates' Magazine, Volume 30. 1921-1922. Cambridge, Mass.: The Riverside Press. P. 391. "To Mr. and Mrs. Caspar Henry Burton for their gift of securities valued at $5,000 in memory of their son, Caspar Henry Burton, Jr., of the Class of 1909, the income to be awarded annually to a student in any department of Harvard University, who shall be if possible according to the expressed desire of Caspar Henry Burton, Jr., a member of The Society of St. John the Evangelist or a member of the Fly Club."
18. "Lionel de Jersey Harvard (Emmanuel College)". hcs.uraf.harvard.edu. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
19. "[Grew] was critical of Berlin society as being too rank-conscious, preferring Vienna society where admission to the inner circle depended on personal merit alone. This had been his reason for favoring the Fly Club at Harvard." Heinrichs, Waldo H. Jr. American Ambassador: Joseph C. Grew and the Development of the United States Diplomatic Tradition. Oxford University Press, 1986.
20. "Joseph Clark Grew - People - Department History - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
21. "Jared Kushner, Trump's Son-in-Law, Is Cleared to Serve as Adviser", The New York Times, January 21, 2017
22. "Presidential Memorandum on The White House Office of American Innovation – The White House". trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
23. "Trump Picks Jared Kushner to Lead New White House Innovation Office". Executive Gov. Mar 28, 2017. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
24. "Patrick says he quit The Fly Club in 1983". The Boston Globe. 2006-08-03.
25. "Harvard Journal: All-Male Club Opens Its Doors Warily," The New York Times 9 October 1993. LexisNexis Academic.
26. FDR Library, biography of James Roosevelt Archived 2004-09-03 at the Wayback Machine : "He was a member of the Signet Society, the Fly Club, Institute of 1770 and Hasty Pudding Club"
27. Edlich, Alexander R (1993): Harvard 'final club' to may become first to admit women, The Dartmouth Online, October 19, 1993 Archived 2014-11-11 at the Wayback Machine : "According to The Crimson, Massachusetts Governor William Weld, who graduated from Harvard and was a member of the Fly Club, wrote the club in 1987 urging it to admit women."
28. "Francis H. Cabot, 86, Dies; Created Notable Gardens," The New York Times, Nov. 27, 2011
29. "W. PALMER DIXON, STOCKBROKER, 66; Partner in Loeb, Rhoades, Ex-Squash Star, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
30. "Henry Thrun on Instagram: "Last minute effort to make the Nice List 🎄"". Instagram. Retrieved 2023-04-18.