6 Famous Members of the Skull and Bones Secret Society
In 1832, Yale University students William Huntington Russell and Alphonso Taft co-founded “The Order of the Skull and Bones,” a secret society that has gone on to become one of the most elite organizations of its kind in the United States. For almost two centuries, Skull and Bones has been a subject of much fascination, speculation, and suspicion. Its members have included some of the most influential and powerful figures in American history — including three U.S. presidents — and its secrecy has fueled numerous conspiracy theories and rumors about the society’s true nature and purpose.
Over the years, several strange secrets about Skull and Bones have been revealed. According to some accounts, new members are — or once were — made to lie naked in a stone coffin while describing their most intimate secrets and experiences. And the society’s headquarters — a stark, windowless brownstone building in New Haven, Connecticut, called “The Tomb” — is rumored to house a number of macabre artifacts, including the skulls of the Apache warrior Geronimo and the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. Perhaps of greater import to the Bonesmen and Boneswomen, as initiates are known (women were granted membership in 1992), is the promise that all members are guaranteed lifelong financial stability — in exchange, of course, for their absolute loyalty and secrecy.
Despite this secretive nature, many prominent individuals have been identified as members of Skull and Bones. (Up until 1971, the society published an annual membership register.) Here are six of the most influential known members of the secret society.
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William Howard Taft, 27th President of the United States
William Howard Taft served as president of the United States from 1909 to 1913, and later as chief justice of the United States — he is the only person to have held both positions. The young Taft was initiated as a Bonesman in 1878, which was no surprise as his father, Alphonso Taft, was the society’s co-founder. It’s hard to say how much bearing Skull and Bones had on Taft’s career, but he rose rapidly after Yale and was appointed a judge while still in his 20s. He became a federal circuit judge at 34, and in 1900 was sent to the Philippines by President William McKinley to serve as chief civil administrator — a political position that set him on the path to the White House.
Walter Camp, Father of American Football
Walter Camp, often referred to as the “father of American football,” was initiated into Skull and Bones in 1880. He was a college football player and coach at Yale, during which time he played a pivotal role in shaping the rules and strategies of the game. Camp’s changes included the introduction of the quarterback role, reducing the team size to 11 from 15, and replacing the traditional scrum of British rugby with the scrimmage. He served on Yale’s athletic committee for nearly 50 years, influencing not just football but collegiate athletics as a whole, and is widely considered his generation’s most influential champion of athletic sports.
Henry Luce, Magazine Magnate
Henry Luce was a hugely influential publisher who founded Time magazine, Life magazine, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated. Before he became one of the most powerful figures in the history of American journalism, Luce was a member of Skull and Bones. He was initiated in 1920 alongside his best friend Briton Hadden, with whom he co-founded Time in 1923. Hadden died six years after Time was first published, leaving Luce in sole control of the magazine. As with all new members of Skull and Bones, Luce was assigned a secret name — in his case, “Baal.” Many Bonesmen were given names from literature, myth, or religion, such as Hamlet, Uncle Remus, Sancho Panza, Thor, and Odin.
Lyman Spitzer, Theoretical Physicist
Skull and Bones has had its fair share of scientifically minded members, including climatologist William Welch Kellogg and physicist John B. Goodenough (recipient of the 2019 Nobel Prize for chemistry). Then there was Lyman Spitzer, a theoretical physicist and astronomer who joined Skull and Bones in 1935. Spitzer made significant contributions to several fields of astrophysics, including research into star formation and plasma physics. He was also the first person to propose the idea for a space-based observatory, which he detailed in his 1946 paper “Astronomical Advantages of an Extra-Terrestrial Observatory.” His idea later became reality in 1977, when NASA, along with the European Space Agency, took the concept and began developing what became the Hubble Space Telescope.
George H.W. Bush, 41st President of the United States
George H.W. Bush was a notable student during his time at Yale. He was accepted into Phi Beta Kappa, a prestigious academic honor society; he captained the Yale baseball team that played in the first two College World Series; and he was a member of the Yale cheerleading squad. He was a worthy candidate for Skull and Bones, which he was initiated into in 1948. Later, of course, Bush became the second Bonesman to occupy the Oval Office, when he was sworn in as the 41st president of the United States in 1989. Bush wasn’t the first of his family to join Skull and Bones, though. His father, U.S. Senator Prescott Bush, was initiated in 1917, while his uncle George Herbert Walker Jr. joined a decade later. Bush’s son, George W. Bush (the 43rd president of the United States), continued the family tradition when he too was initiated in 1968.
John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State
On the other end of the political spectrum, plenty of Bonesmen have gone on to become members of the Democratic Party, the most famous of which is John Kerry, initiated in 1966. Prior to serving as secretary of state under Barack Obama, Kerry was the Democratic nominee for president in the 2004 election — and his opponent was none other than fellow Bonesman George W. Bush. When Kerry was asked what he could say about the significance of both him and Bush being Skull and Bones members, he simply and dutifully replied, “Not much, because it’s a secret.”
