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.
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".
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 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. 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."
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
- Archibald Cary Coolidge – historian, Harvard professor, first director of the Harvard University Library
- Charles William Eliot – 24th President of Harvard University
- Samuel Eliot – historian; president of Trinity College, overseer of Harvard University, Boston Public Schools superintendent
- Abbott Lawrence Lowell – historian, 25th President of Harvard University
- Charles Stearns Wheeler – transcendentalist, noted as inspiration for Henry David Thoreau’s Walden
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.
- William Robert Ware – architect, first professor of architecture at MIT, founder of the School of Architecture at Columbia University
Business
- Charles Francis Adams Jr. – president of the Union Pacific Railroad, president of the American Historical Association, and colonel in the Union Army
- 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
- Spencer Rascoff – co-founder and former CEO of Zillow
- David Rockefeller* – American banker
Entertainment
- Robert Carlock – screenwriter and producer
- 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
- John Codman Ropes – co-founder of law firm Ropes & Grey
Literature and journalism
- James Russell Lowell – poet, critic, editor, and US ambassador to the Kingdom of Spain and the Court of St. James's
- Ernest Thayer – poet, author of "Casey at the Bat"
- Evan Thomas – journalist and author
- Owen Wister – writer, "father" of western fiction
- 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.
- 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)
- 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.
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
- Joseph Hodges Choate – lawyer and diplomat; U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, 1899–1905
- Dwight F. Davis – U.S. Secretary of War, 1925–1929; Governor General of the Philippines, 1929–1932; tennis champion
- Grenville T. Emmet – U.S. Ambassador to Netherlands 1934–1937 and Austria 1937–1937
- Charles Fairchild – United States Secretary of the Treasury 1887–1889; Attorney General of New York 1876-1877
- Joseph Clark Grew – career diplomat, U.S. Ambassador to Japan 1932–1941, oversaw the development of U.S. Foreign Service
- Wickham Hoffman – U.S. Minister to Denmark 1883–1885; Colonel in the Union Army
- Jared Kushner – son-in-law of Donald Trump; Senior White House Adviser and head of the White House Office of American Innovation
- Tony Lake – President Bill Clinton's National Security Advisor
- James Russell Lowell – U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Spain and the Court of St. James's, poet, critic, and editor
- Deval Patrick – 71st Governor of Massachusetts; quit the club in 1983
- Roger Putnam – Mayor of Springfield, Massachusetts and director of the U.S. Economic Stabilization Administration
- Jay Rockefeller – U.S. Senator from West Virginia
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt – 32nd President of the United States
- James Roosevelt – U.S. Congressman (CA)
- Theodore Roosevelt – 26th President of the United States
- William Weld – 68th Governor of Massachusetts
Religion
- Edward Everett Hale – author, historian, Unitarian minister, Chaplain to the U.S. Senate
- Phillips Brooks – clergyman, author, lyricist
Science
- Francis Cabot – gardener, horticulturist, chairman of the New York Botanical Garden, and founder of the Garden Conservancy
- 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
- 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
- W. Palmer Dixon – two-time winner of national squash championship (1925, 1926)
- 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.