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Wolf's Head Society

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Wolf's Head is the third oldest secret society at what is now known as Yale University. It was founded in 1883 to help reform a social system and University administration dominated by the societies Skull and Bones and Scroll and Key.

Reform was desired by undergraduates and alumni who thought Bones and Keys figured too prominently at late-nineteenth century Yale. The administration was peopled almost exclusively by alumni of Bones or Keys. Also, the student body had increased in number, widened its geographic scope, and broadened its social class origins after the American Civil War, while the extant societies were dominated by socially prominent Southerners, New Englanders and New Yorkers.

Undergraduates on campus and alumni in the current media debated specifically the merits of the society system. Many called for an end to the system. Some members of the Yale Class of 1884 -- led by E.A. Merritt (1884), an eventual U.S. congressman, Speaker of the New York State Assembly and longtime Assemblymember from upstate New York -- and aided by over three hundred alumni, incorporated a new society.

Known originally as "The Third Society" and members as "Grey Friars", the society shunned secrecy and anonymity for privacy, condemning as "poppycock" some of the practices associated with Bones and Keys (and Freemasonry). The society changed its name to Wolf's Head in 1888, for example, when undergraduates noted approvingly the design of the society's pin. (The pin has been supplied by Tiffany & Co.) Members of Bones or Keys wore their pins face down on their lapel or cravat.

WHS helped maintain the system that energizes the undergraduate student body and campus. Also, the reform opened University administration to other talents, helping to launch Yale toward leadership in American higher education. A. Whitney Griswold (1929) opened serious discussion of coeducation during his mid-century reign in Woodbridge Hall, and helped create the case and pedagogy for American Studies in the academy; a little more recently, university administrator and Yale Medal winner Henry Chauncey (1957) has been lauded for tactics that muffled the May Day 1970 demonstration prompted by the local trials of the New Haven Nine and Black Panther Bobby Seale.

The society system distinguishes Yale among American universities with global gravity, and it sustains a vision articulated by Benno Schmidt, Jr. (1963): "Yale's greatness carries an urgent need to guard against the fall of excellence into exclusivity, of refinement into preciousness, of elegance into class convention." (Tocqueville might beam.) To be frank, however, and to paraphrase a knowledgable alumnus and former Boston mayoral hopeful: WHS stands in relation to Bones as the Boston Red Sox stand in relation to the New York Yankees. To continue the comparison, Keys could be considered the St. Louis Cardinals: in a different "league" than the other two, with more acclaim than one competitor but less than the other. (Apologies, Bart.)

WHS taps the gregarious student leader or the "lone wolf" with demonstrated aptitude for leading dedicated, like-minded individuals. The "cool" girl and the "good" guy is represented. Undergraduate members meet twice a week, debate, exchange personal histories, and tap the next delegation "from the best of Yale". The last all-male delegation was culled from the Yale Class of 1992. WHS was the last society to coeducate. Nuanced debate over several years and ballots informed this transition for the Phelps Association, the society's alumni arm. Undergraduate members become Phelps Association members when their delegation "has left the building".

The original tomb (commissioned to McKim, Mead and White, it now houses the Institution for Social and Policy Studies) sits at 77 Prospect Street in New Haven, Connecticut, possibly to mirror the Egyptian motif of the Grove Street Cemetery. A new home was built on York Street in the 1920s, a gift from philanthropist Edward S. Harkness (1897). The only building designed by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue on campus, the structure is known among members as "the Hall". The building, the largest of its kind, is reputed to house an Olympic-sized swimming pool. The water bill is said to be higher than the rest of the First Ward.

"The Hall" is not, paraphrase the architecture critic Paul Goldberger (1972), a tomb or a temple or partially hidden underground or obvious to passers-by or off Main Street. "The Hall" balances the worlds of personal renewel and worldly achievement. Wit is welcomed. Nude wrestling is prohibited. And the view from the apex of Harkness Tower is worth the ascent.

Alumni have achieved distinction in the arts and letters, corporate governance and management, education, finance, the law, politics, professional football, and the professions. Ten alumni and three lupine spouses have been awarded the Yale Medal.

Notable members include:





  • Roosevelt Thompson (1984), Rhodes Scholar, Class Day prize given in his memory "to a member of the Senior Class for commitment to and capacity for public service", won Hart Lyman Prize for junior who demonstrates high character and scholarship, junior year Phi Beta Kappa selection; alumnus of Central High School, Little Rock, AR
  • Doug Wright (1985), awarded 2004 Pulitzer for Drama, 2004 Tony Best Play and 2005 Lamdha Literary Award for Drama for I AM MY OWN WIFE, a play developed from transcripts of conversations with Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, an aging German transvestite; Kesselring Award winner from National Arts Club for 'best new American play" for QUILLS; most recent production is GREY GARDENS, a musical that tells the story of Mrs Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edie, respectively, an aunt and first cousin to Jackie Kennedy Onassis
  • Richard Roberts (1986), Managing Director, Goldman Sachs; Assistant to Mayor Rudolph Guiliani of New York City (1994 - 1995), advanced ANCHOR initiative, a program designed to increase home ownership in distressed neighborhoods, finished mayoral administration as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, and Chairman, Board, Housing Development Corporation; Co-President, Phelps Association (1995 - 1999)
  • Michelle Quibell (2006), co-winner Nellie Pratt Elliot Award, the most prestigious athletic award given to a senior female at Yale: two-time national champion in women's squash, four-time Collegiate Squash Association All-American, Collegiate Squash Association national champion her sophomore and junior seasons, Ivy League 2003 Rookie of the Year, and 2004 and 2005 Player of the Year
  • Joslyn Woodard (2006), co-winner Nellie Pratt Elliot Award: won 20 Heptagonal track and field championships, more than any woman in the history of the Ivy League, named Outstanding Performer five times at the Indoor and Outdoor Heps, holder of seven Yale records in indoor and outdoor events


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