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.

The Fly Club's clubhouse.

Founded 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."

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."

Clubhouse

Constructed in 1896, with 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 St. 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

 

Fly Club Medallion of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Academia

• James Bryant Conant* – 26th President of Harvard University^[4]
• Abbott Lawrence Lowell – historian, 25th President of Harvard University^[5]
• Charles William Eliot – 24th President of Harvard University^[6]
• Archibald Cary Coolidge – historian, Harvard professor, first director of the Harvard University Library^[6]

Public service

• Franklin Delano Roosevelt – 32nd President of the United States^[7]
• Theodore Roosevelt – 26th President of the United States. ^[6][7]
• Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. – Supreme Court Justice^[6][7]
• Jay Rockefeller – U.S. Senator from West Virginia^[8]
• James Roosevelt- son of Franklin Roosevelt, U.S. Congressman (CA)^[9]
• Deval Patrick – 71st Governor of Massachusetts^[10]
• William Weld – 68th Governor of Massachusetts^[11]
• Tony Lake – President Bill Clinton's National Security Advisor^[4]
• Jared Kushner – Senior White House Adviser^[12] and head of the White House Office of American Innovation^[13][14]
• Joseph Clark Grew – career diplomat, U.S. Ambassador to Japan 1932–1941, oversaw development of US Foreign Service^[15][16]
• 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^[6]

Religion

• Edward Everett Hale – author, historian, Unitarian minister, Chaplain to the U.S. Senate^[6]
• Phillips Brooks – clergyman, author, lyricist^[7]

The arts

• James Russell Lowell – poet, critic, editor, and diplomat^[7]
• Ernest Lawrence Thayer – author of "Casey at the Bat"^[17]
• Owen Wister – American writer, "father" of western fiction^[6][7]
• Robert Charles Benchley* – American humorist
• Evan Thomas – American journalist and author^[18]
• Robert Carlock – writer, producer^[19]
• Whit Stillman – writer, film director
• Frederick Hubbard Gwynne – stage, film, and television actor
• Francis Higginson Cabot – gardener, horticulturist, founder of the Garden Conservancy, creator of Stonecrop and Les Quatre Vents,^[20] a founder of Harvard Krokodiloes
• Herbert Dudley Hale – son of Edward Everett Hale; noted Boston and NYC architect, architect of the Fly's clubhouse at Two Holyoke Place. ^{[7] [21]}

Finance and business

• Albert Hamilton Gordon* – Wall Street entrepreneur, Chairman of Kidder Peabody
• David Rockefeller* – American banker ^[22]
• Louis Kane* – founder of Au Bon Pain bakery and café^[23]
• Charlie Cheever – co founder of Quora

Athletics

• W. Palmer Dixon - first recipient of major "H" in squash, two-time winner of national squash championship (1925, 1926), donor of Harvard University's W. Palmer Dixon Indoor Tennis Courts.^[24]

Scholarships In Memoriam

• Caspar Henry Burton, Jr. - during WWI, volunteered for British Red Cross; 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.^{[25] [26]}
• Lionel de Jersey Harvard* – first [collateral] descendant of John Harvard to attend Harvard College, casualty of WWI. Harvard College's Harvard-Cambridge Fellowship (to Emmanuel College) is named in his honor.^[27]
• 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.

* Initiated into the D.U. Club, which merged with the Fly Club in 1996.

References

1. Shand-Tucci, Douglass (2001). Harvard University. Princeton University Press. ISBN 1-56898-280-1. p. 101 [1]
2. Cambridge Historical Commission, "City of Cambridge, Landmarks and Other Protected Properties" 2010-06-05 at the Wayback Machine, 2009.
3. "The Architecture" 2016-11-09 at the Wayback Machine, Winthrop House (Facilities & History)
4. "Facts on Final Clubs", The Harvard Crimson, March 3, 1999
5. 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 himself accepted honorary membership in the Fly in 1904."
6. Catalogue of the Alpha Delta Phi Club of Harvard University, 1836–1902. Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press, 1902.[2]
7. Catalogue of the Fly Club of Harvard University, 1836–1911. Camb. (Mass.): The University Press, 1911 [3]
8. "Harvard Journal: All-Male Club Opens Its Doors Warily," The New York Times 9 October 1993. LexisNexis Academic.
9. FDR Library, biography of James Roosevelt [4]: "He was a member of the Signet Society, the Fly Club, Institute of 1770 and Hasty Pudding Club"
10. "Patrick says he quit The Fly Club in 1983". The Boston Globe. 2006-08-03.
11. Edlich, Alexander R (1993): Harvard 'final club' to may become first to admit women, The Dartmouth Online, October 19, 1993 [5] 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."
12. "Jared Kushner, Trump's Son-in-Law, Is Cleared to Serve as Adviser", The New York Times, January, 21, 2017
13. "Presidential Memorandum on The White House Office of American Innovation – The White House". trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
14. "Trump Picks Jared Kushner to Lead New White House Innovation Office". Executive Gov. Mar 28, 2017. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
15. "[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. [6]
16. "Joseph Clark Grew - People - Department History - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
17. 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 [7]
18. "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. [8]
19. "The Fly Flees From Progress". The Harvard Crimson. 1994-10-04.
20. "Francis H. Cabot, 86, Dies; Created Notable Gardens," The New York Times, Nov. 27, 2011 [9]
21. "Noted Architect Is Dead Herbert Dudley Hale (Dud's father)". Nov 11, 1908. p. 1. Retrieved May 11, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
22. "DIMES: Online Collections and Catalog of Rockefeller Archive Center" (PDF). dimes.rockarch.org. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
23. "The Final Club Scene" Archived 2012-09-07 at archive.today, Harvard Magazine, May 1997. "...says former D.U. graduate president Louis Kane '53..."
24. "W. PALMER DIXON, STOCKBROKER, 66; Partner in Loeb, Rhoades, Ex-Squash Star, Dies". timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
25. "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 for 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.'"
26. "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."
27. "Lionel de Jersey Harvard (Emmanuel College)". hcs.uraf.harvard.edu. Retrieved May 11, 2021.