Fox Club Explained
The Fox Club is a private all-male final club of Harvard undergraduate students founded in 1898. The Fox Club is not officially affiliated with Harvard University. It is located on John F. Kennedy Street in Harvard Square.
History
The Fox Club was founded in 1898 by six undergraduate students. Originally known as the Digamma Club, the name Fox and the club's symbol, a fox carrying the letter "F", grew from the similarity between the letter "F" and the archaic Greek character for "digamma", which primarily signifies the number 6. The clubhouse has three floors that serve both the undergraduate and alumni membership, as well as an underground level where club members may invite guests. The clubhouse was built in 1906 and designed by Guy Lowell, a prominent American architect who also designed the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the New York State Supreme Court Building. The building is located on 44 John F. Kennedy Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is a city historic landmark or otherwise protected property.
All-male status
Harvard attempted to impose sanctions against members of single-gender final clubs, preventing members from holding student group leadership positions, serving as varsity athletic team captains, and from having fellowships endorsed by the college. However, after acknowledging that this policy against final clubs violated federal law, Harvard rescinded all sanctions in 2019.[1]
In 2015, the Fox Club was one of the first of Harvard's final clubs to contemplate admitting women, but only on a provisional basis by the club's undergraduate board. In an August 2015 vote by the club's undergraduate members, nine women were given provisional membership. This vote was taken without input from the club's graduate members.
In May 2019, The Harvard Crimson reported that a vote of all Fox Club graduate members had failed to reach the two-thirds affirmative majority necessary to change membership policies.[2]
Notable members
- T.S. Eliot, British essayist, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic[3]
- Van Wyck Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, literary critic, and biographer[4]
- Hermann Hagedorn, American author, poet, and biographer[5]
- King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, King of Nepal from 1972 to 2001[6]
- Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., U.S. senator from Massachusetts and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, South Vietnam, West Germany, and the Holy See[7] [8]
- John Davis Lodge, former actor and politician, congressman, 79th governor of Connecticut, and U.S. ambassador to Spain, Argentina, and Switzerland[9]
- Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation[10]
- Steve Ballmer, former chief executive officer of Microsoft[11]
- Paul Wylie, figure skater[12]
- Maxwell Perkins, literary editor and publisher who gave writers Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald their start.[13] Hemingway dedicated The Old Man and the Sea to Perkins.[14]
- Peter J. Gomes, American preacher and theologian, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard Divinity School and Pusey Minister at Harvard's Memorial Church
- David Herbert Donald, American historian
- Paul A. Freund, American jurist and law professor
- Robert G. Albion, Harvard's first professor of oceanic history
- Fernando Zóbel de Ayala y Montojo, Spanish Filipino painter and businessman
- Jaime Zobel de Ayala, Filipino businessman, philanthropist, Philippine Ambassador to The Court of St. James's, and art photographer; chairman emeritus of Ayala Corporation
- J. Sinclair Armstrong, Former Chairman of The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
- Royal Little, Founder and Former Chairman and CEO, Textron Inc.
- Sinclair Weeks, Former U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, 13th U.S. Secretary of Commerce
- Craig Burr, co-founder, Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co, one of the earliest bi-coastal venture capital firms in the US
- Eliah Seton, CEO of SoundCloud
References
Notes
Bibliography
External links
42.6233°N -71.0223°W
Notes and References
- Web site: Policy on Unrecognized Single-Gender Social Organizations. 29 June 2020.
- Web site: Fox Club to Remain All-Male as Graduate Members Once Again Reject Co-Ed Proposal . The Harvard Crimson.
- News: Kirsch. Adam. The Young T.S. Eliot. Harvard Magazine.com. 2015-07-01. 2015-07-01.
- Book: Hoopes, James. Van Wyck Brooks: In Search of American Culture. Univ of Massachusetts Press. 1997. Amherst. 29–30. 0-87023-212-6.
- [Hermann Hagedorn]
- News: No writer attributed. Ex-Harvard Student to Return as King. The Harvard Crimson. 1983-12-07. 2007-10-30.
- News: Gale. Mary Ellen. Lodge at Harvard: Loyal Conservation 'Who Knew Just What He Wanted to Do'. The Harvard Crimson. 1960-11-04. 2007-10-30.
- [Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.]
- [John Davis Lodge]
- News: Seward. Zachary M. Gates Will Address Grads. The Harvard Crimson. 2007-03-22. 2007-10-30.
- News: Leibovich. Mark. Alter Egos. The Washington Post. 2000-12-31. 2007-10-30.
- News: Nessralla. Richelle. Olympians Come Back With Medals. The Harvard Crimson. 1992-02-27. 2007-10-30.
- http://blog.loa.org/2010/09/maxwell-perkins-editor-of-f-scott.html "Maxwell Perkins: editor of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Dawn Powell, and Thomas Wolfe"
- Perkins, Maxwell Evarts; Baughman, Judith, The sons of Maxwell Perkins: letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, and their editor, University of South Carolina Press, 2004
