Wolf's Head Society is a senior society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1883, it is one of Yale's oldest senior societies and is grouped by Yale Alumni Magazine with Skull and Bones and Scroll and Key as one of the three oldest "landed" societies at the university.
This list includes notable people whose membership in Wolf's Head has been reported in reliable published sources. The society's membership was historically more public than its internal proceedings: Yale Alumni Magazine has written that, by the late nineteenth century, the membership of Yale's senior societies was widely known through Tap Day, although their inner workings remained private. Annual lists of senior-society members were formerly published in Yale Alumni Magazine, the Yale Daily News, The New York Times, and the Yale Banner through 1970, after which members became less publicly identified.
Wolf's Head was originally an all-male organization. In December 1991, its alumni voted to admit women, making it the last of Yale's all-male senior societies to approve coeducational membership.
Academia
NameYale ClassNotabilityRef.Frank Frost Abbott1882Classical scholarE. Tendayi Achiume2005Professor of law at Stanford Law School and former United Nations special rapporteurDouglass Marshall Allen1963Professor of philosophy and a rounder of Maine Peace Action Committee at the University of MainePaul Butler1982Law professor of Georgetown University Law CenterThe Phelps Asssociation Membership Directory 2006Sam Chauncey1957Administrator at Yale University during New Haven Black Panther trialsKarabel, Jerome. The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York, 2005. p. 653. . "A member of the varsity hockey team and the Aurilian Society...Chauncey was tapped for Wolf's Head, which was just a notch below Skull and Bones and Scroll and Key in the campus hierarchy (Yale Banner; Class of 1957, YU)".Karilyn Crockett1995Historian and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; former Chief of Equity for the City of BostonSumner McKnight Crosby1932Professor of art history at Yale UniversityTerence Cuneo1991Marsh Chair Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy at the University of VermontWilliam Shirley Fulton1903Archaeologist, founder of the Amerind Foundation, and director of the Museum of the American Indian Heye Foundation Richard Gilder1954Co-founder of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History; headed the brokerage firm Gilder, Gagnon, Howe & CoYale Banner and Pot Pourri Yearbook, New Haven, CT - Class of 1954, pg. 35Alfred Whitney Griswold192916th president of Yale UniversityOren, Dan. Joining the Club: A History of Jews and Yale, Second Edition. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2000. .Ashbel Green Gulliver1919Dean of Yale Law SchoolJohn N. Hazard1930Scholar of Soviet law and public administration and pioneer in the field of SovietologyRobert Maynard Hutchins19215th president and chancellor of the University of Chicago and former dean of Yale Law SchoolJeffrey O'Connell and Thomas E. O'Connell. "The Five Roles of Robert Maynard Hutchins" DePaul Law Review, vol 42, no. 2, (Winter 192), article 9 footnote 62. via DePaul University Libraries.William Woolsey Johnson1862Professor of mathematics at the United States Naval Academy; co-founder of the American Mathematical SocietyRashid Khalidi1970Professor emeritus of modern Arab studies at Columbia UniversityGeorge deForest Lord1942George M. Bodman Professor of English Literature at Yale UniversityFelix V. Matos Rodriguez19848th Chancellor of City University of New York, cabinet secretary of the Puerto Rico Department of Family AffairsBenno C. Schmidt Jr.196320th president of Yale University, former Dean of the Columbia Law SchoolWilliam Kelly Simpson1947Professor of Egyptology, archaeology, ancient Egyptian literature, and Afro-Asiatic languages at Yale UniversityGil Stein1978Professor of Near Eastern archaeology at the University of Chicago, former director of the Oriental Institute
Art and architecture
NameYale ClassNotabilityRef.Richard Brettell1971Director of the Dallas Museum of Art, chevalier and commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et Lettres, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesGeorge S. Chappell1899Architect, parodist, and journalist for Vanity Fair under the pseudonym Walter E. Traprock Jonathan Foote1958Architect associated with the preservation movementJohn Hill Morgan 1893Assistant professor of American painting at Yale, authority on early American art, member of the New York State AssemblyRene di Rosa1942American vintner, art collector, and founder of the di Rosa Center for Contemporary ArtEdmund Courtlandt Stanton 1876Co-creator of the Metropolitan Opera House and co-manager Broadway's Garden Theatre Henry Raup Wagner1884American book collector, bibliographer, cartographer, historian, and business executiveSam Wagstaff1944American art curator, collector, and mentor of Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti SmithMorrisroe, Patricia. Mapplethorpe: A Biography, Random House, New York, 1995. p. 115; .George Alexis Weymouth1958Artist, served on the United States Commission of Fine Arts, member of the Du Pont family.
Business
NameYale ClassNotabilityRef.Sam Beard1961Social entrepreneur, co-founder of the Jefferson Awards for Public ServiceMorgan B. Brainard1900President of AetnaWilliam H. T. Bush1960President of the St. Louis-Boatmen's Bancshares; brother of George W. BushAlexander Smith Cochran1896Manufacturer, sportsman and philanthropistGifford A. Cochran1924Owner of Thoroughbred racehorses and winner Kentucky Derby and the Preakness StakesCraig F. Cullinan Jr.1949Chairman of the executive committee of the Houston Sports Association, acquired the Houston Astros Major League Baseball franchise rightsWilliam Clay Ford Sr.1949Owner of the Detroit Lions of the National Football League, last surviving grandchild of Henry FordYale Banner and Pot Pourri Yearbook, New Haven, CT - Yale Class of 1949Anson Goodyear18991st president of the Museum of Modern Art, member of the Goodyear familyEdward B. Greene1900Chairman of the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Mining CompanyCharles W. Harkness1883Director of Standard Oil; the Southern Pacific Railway Company and the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul RailwayRichard, David Alan. Skulls and Keys: The Hidden History of Yale's Secret Societies. Pegasus Books Ltd., 2017. Edward Harkness1896Philanthropist; 6th-richest person in the United States (1918)William L. Harkness1881Businessman and inheritor of a large share of Standard Oil.Gardiner Greene Hubbard1841Founder of Bell Telephone Company (later AT&T), founder of National Geographic Society, founder of journal ScienceRobert Livingston Ireland Jr.1916President of M.A. Hanna Company, quail hunter, and yachtsmanLewis Lehrman1960Rite Aid president and founder of the Lehrman InstituteGeorge Grant Mason Jr.1926Co-founder of Pan Am, appointed to the Civil Aeronautics AuthorityRoger Milliken1937President and CEO of Milliken & CompanyPaul Moore Sr.1908Founder of Republic Aviation; director of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western RailroadMoore, Paul. "A Touch of Laughter" in My Harvard, My Yale. Diana DuBois, editor. New York: Random House, 1982, Bruce Norris1946Businessman and longtime owner of the Detroit Red Wings hockey teamWilliam Henry Parsons 1882Paper manufacturer and president of the New York Society for the Suppression of VicePhilip W. Pillsbury1924Chairman emeritus of the Pillsbury CompanyYale University Banner and Pou Pourri Yearbook, New Haven, CT, Class of 1924, pg. 89Godfrey A. Rockefeller1946Aviator, conservationist, and former executive director of the World Wildlife FundMichael Seibel2005Co-founder of Twitch / Justin.tv and partner at Y CombinatorTom Steyer1979Founder and senior partner of Farallon Capital, 2020 Presidential candidate"Secret Society 2013: Who they are, and how they got in!", The Yale Herald. April 21, 2012; retrieved 2012-12-11.William Earl Dodge Stokes1874Businessman with Phelps, Dodge & Company and real estate developer of New York City's Upper West SideReginald Claypoole Vanderbilt1902Member of the Vanderbilt family and founder and president of numerous equestrian organizationsWillard Lamb Velie1888Founder of Velie Motor Compan and executive at Deere & CompanyKevin Lin2004Co-founder and former chief operating officer of TwitchWheelock Whitney Jr.1950American investment banker, sports executive, philanthropist, and Minnesota politicianWilliam Wrigley III1954President of the Wm. Wrigley Jr. CompanyShivon Zilis2008Technology executive and venture capitalist
Entertainment
NameYale ClassNotabilityRef.Joshua Astrachan1980Film producer and co-founder of Animal Kingdom, an independent production companyRick Berlin1967Singer-songwriter, former frontman of Orchestra Luna, Luna, and Berlin AirliftJeb Brown1986Broadway actor, known for Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and Dead Outlaw; Tony Award nomineeChipo Chung2000Actress and activist, known for Doctor Who, Sherlock, and Thomas & FriendsTom Davenport1961Documentary filmmaker and founder of Folkstreams, an online folklife film archiveSeth Gordon1998Producer and director for PBS, The Gates Foundation, and the United NationsCharles Ives1898Modernist composer and pioneer in a systematic program of experimental musicHenderson, Clayton W. The Charles Ives Tunebook - Second Edition, Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 2008. p. 367; .Ellis Ludwig-Leone2011Leader of the chamber pop group San FerminChristopher Lydon1962Host of The Connection and creater of Open SourceTom Mankiewicz1963Screenwriter, director, and producer known for James Bond and Superman filmsDouglas Moore1915Composer, songwriter, organist, pianist, conductor, educator, actor, and author"Yale's Great Oak Sees 'Tap Day' Again", The New York Times. May 21, 1915. p. 8.Lila Neugebauer2007Theatre director, writer, and artistic directorStan Salfas1970Film and television editor known for the modern Planet of the Apes filmsClarissa Ward2002Emmy and Peabody Award-winning television journalist with CNNMeiyin Wang2002Singapore-born theatre director, producer, and curator; Lincoln Center arts executiveDouglas Wick1976Academy Award winning film producer, whose work includes producing GladiatorDoug Wright1985Obie Award and Tony Award-winning playwright and screenwriter
Law