Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by GoBigRed1865 (talk | contribs) at 17:22, 16 December 2007 (→Notable alumni). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Sphinx Head Society is the oldest senior honor society at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Founding

Sphinx Head was founded in 1890 by a group of men from the senior class. The Society was founded in order to "create and maintain a stronger feeling" for Cornell University and to promote "a closer and stronger friendship among members of the Senior class."

Membership

Each year, the Society usually taps fewer than forty members of the senior class for membership. Since the Society's founding, membership has been reserved for the most respected members of the senior class at Cornell. The names of newly tapped Sphinx Heads were published in The New York Times through the 1930s, but are now published exclusively in The Cornell Daily Sun. Although membership is public, the proceedings of the Society remain concealed. Sphinx Head also awards honorary membership Cornell administration, faculty, staff, and alumni for their "significant personal and/or professional accomplishment, outstanding leadership, distinguished service to the university and interest in and commitment to undergraduate student life and development."

Media Coverage

Election into the Society has been recognized by The New York Times as "the highest non-scholastic honor within reach of undergraduates." The Society recognizes outstanding Cornell senior men and women who, throughout their undergraduate years, have demonstrated impeccable strength of character on top of a strong dedication to leadership and service at Cornell University. The New York Times has referred to the Sphinx Head Society as being "a secret senior society of the nature of Skull and Bones," a senior honor society at Yale University of which Andrew Dickson White, Cornell University's Co-founder and first President, was a member.

After Cornell

Many Sphinx Heads have attained great success and distinction in their post-collegiate careers. Members have gone on to become U.S. Presidential Cabinet members, Elected officials for local, state, and federal governments, U.S. diplomats, CEOs and Chairmen of Fortune 500 Companies, Chairmen and members of the Cornell University Board of Trustees and Council, major Cornell University donors, Frank H.T. Rhodes Exemplary Alumni Service Award winners, Olympic athletes and medalists, and members of both Cornell University and National Athletic Halls of Fame. Several members are also profiled in The 100 Most Notable Cornellians.

Notable alumni

This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Sphinx Head" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Some notable Sphinx Heads include:

• Jon Anderson (1971): Winner of the 1973 Boston Marathon and 1981 Honolulu Marathon
• Neal Dow Becker (1905): Chairman of the Cornell University Board of Trustees (1947-1953); Member of the Council on Foreign Relations; Co-founder of the American Australian Association in 1948.
• Romeyn Berry (1904): Dubbed Cornell Athletics "The Big Red" while composing the lyrics to the The Big Red Team (a Cornell song) in 1905; Graduate Manager of Cornell Athletics (1919-1935); Author of Stoneposts in the Sunset.

  

• Samuel Bodman (1960): Secretary of the United States Department of Energy.
• Adolph Coors, Jr. (1907): President of Coors Brewing Company.
• Peter Coors (1969): Chairman of the Coors Brewing Company.
• Kenneth T. Derr (1959): Chairman and CEO of Chevron Corporation (1989-1999).
• Ivan Dresser (1919): Gold medalist in the 3000 meter track & field event at the 1920 Olympic Games.
• Dan Duryea (1928): Film and TV actor.
• Darren Eliot (1983): Professional hockey goaltender; Member of the 1984 Canadian Olympic Ice Hockey team.
• Louis Agassiz Fuertes (1897): Ornithologist; Renown bird artist.
• Pete Gogolak (1964): American Football player for the New York Giants, Buffalo Bills.
• Thomas C. Hennings, Jr. (1924): U.S. Congress Representative for ] 11th District (1935-1940); Senator, Missouri (1951-1960).
• Jerome "Brud" Holland (1939): President of Delaware State College (1953-1959) and Hampton Institute (1960-1970); U.S. Ambassador to Sweden (1970-1972); Chairman of the American Red Cross Board of Governors (1980-1985)
• Samuel Curtis Johnson, Jr. (1950): Former Chairperson of S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc.; Major donor and co-namesake of the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University.
• Robert Kane (1934): President of the U.S. Olympic Committee (1977-1980); Director of Athletics at Cornell (1946-1971); Author of Good Sports: A History of Cornell Athletics.
• Robert D. Kennedy (1954): President and CEO of Union Carbide from 1986-1995.
• Ed Marinaro (1972): Runner-up for the 1971 Heisman trophy; Actor most known for his portrayal of Officer Joe Coffey in Hill Street Blues; Selected as one of the 100 Most Notable Cornellians.
• Jansen Noyes, Jr. (1939): Chairman of the Cornell University Board of Trustees (1978-1984); Director of Helen Keller International from 1946-1996.
• Samuel Pierce (1944): Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development under President Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)
• Robert Purcell (1933): Chairman of the Cornell University Board of Trustees (1968-1978); Donor and namesake of Robert Purcell Community Center (RPCC).
• Thomas C. Reed (1955): U.S. Secretary of the Air Force from January 2, 1976 - April 6, 1977 under Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.
• Henry Schoellkopf Reuss (1933): U.S. Congress Representative for Wisconsin (1955-1983).
• Dick Savitt (1950): Professional tennis player, ranked 2nd in the world for tennis in 1951; Inducted into several halls of fame including the International Tennis Hall of Fame (1976), the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (1986), Tennis Association Men's Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame (1986), and the USTA Eastern Tennis Hall of Fame (1999).
• Dick Schaap (1955): American sports broadcaster for NBC, ABC, & ESPN.
• John L. Senior (1901): First Graduate Manager of Athletics for Cornell University (1901-1907).
• Richmond Shreve (1902): Architect who led the construction of the Empire State Building with his firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon.
• Willard Straight (1901): U.S. Diplomat; Namesake of Willard Straight Hall, a student union that was constructed in 1925 after Straight's death in 1918.
• Frank Sundstrom (1924): U.S. Congress Representative for New Jersey 11th District (1943-1949).
• Franchot Tone (1927): Actor nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1935 for Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
• Elbert Tuttle (1918): Chief judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1981.
• Maxwell Upson (1899): Namesake of Upson Hall on the Engineering Quad of the Cornell campus.
• E. Stewart Williams (1932): Palm Springs, California-based architect with a distinctive modernist style.

Notes

1. "History of Some of the Later Cornell Organizations", Cornell Alumni News, December 18, 1901, p. 89. http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/bitstream/1813/3166/12/004_12.pdf
2. "History of Some of the Later Cornell Organizations", Cornell Alumni News, December 18, 1901, p. 89. http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/bitstream/1813/3166/12/004_12.pdf
3. Cornell University Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
4. "History of Some of the Later Cornell Organizations", Cornell Alumni News, December 18, 1901, p. 89. http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/bitstream/1813/3166/12/004_12.pdf
5. http://www.dos.cornell.edu/wsh/history_2.html
6. "Cornell Societies Elect", The New York Times, October 19, 1930.
7. "Cornell Societies Elect New Members", The New York Times, May 13, 1926.
8. "Cornell Societies Elect", The New York Times, October 14, 1938.
9. Dear Uncle Ezra, October 30, 2003
10. "10 faculty and staff members honored by Sphinx Head society," Cornell Chronicle, December 7, 2007, pg. 14. http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Nov07/sphinx.head.html
11. 63 Juniors Elected to Cornell Societies, The New York Times, May 19, 1929, p. N3.
12. 10 faculty and staff members honored by Sphinx Head society, page 14, Cornell Chronicle, December 7, 2007
13. "Cornell University", The New York Times, May 10, 1891.
14. List of current Cornell University Board of Trustees Members
15. List of current Cornell University Council Members
16. Altschuler, Glenn C. (2003). The 100 Most Notable Cornellians. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-3958-2. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
17. Time: 2:16:03, [http://www.bostonmarathon.org/BostonMarathon/PastChampions.asp Boston Marathon Past Champions
18. Time: 2:16:54 [http://www.honolulumarathon.org/l/Facts___Figures/history/Historybyyear/1981.htm Honolulu Marathon - Facts and Figures
19. http://www.americanaustralian.org/Aboutus/history.php
20. http://cornellbigred.com/Sports/general/2007/FAQ.asp?tab=bigred
21. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9B02E5D6143AE03ABC4153DFB1668382609EDE
22. Romeyn, Berry (1950). Stoneposts in the Sunset. Century House. ASIN B0007EETVA.
23. http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=101929&p=irol-govboard&ID=122769
24. http://imdb.com/name/nm0002053/
25. The Cornellian, 1897
26. http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/virtual/collections/fuertes/index.html
27. "Robert J. Kane, 81, Ex-Olympic Official And Aide at Cornell," New York Times, June 1, 1992.
28. Kane, Robert J. (1992). Good Sports: A History of Cornell Athletics. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Magazine. ISBN 0963327402.
29. http://www.heisman.com/winners/p-sullivan71.html
30. http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/04/3.25.04/Obituaries.html
31. http://www.cornellbigred.com/Sports/general/2007/History.asp?tab=history
32. http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/DisplayMain.jsp?curTime=1197314709726

See also

• List of collegiate secret societies
• Cornell University

Template:Cornell-lite

• Articles lacking sources from December 2007
• Collegiate secret societies
• Honor societies
• 1890 establishments
• United States student societies