Sag Harbor Secret Society

Skull and Bones is a secret society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The society’s alumni organization, which owns the society’s real property and oversees the organization’s activity, is the Russell Trust Association, and is named after General William Huntington Russell who founded the society with fellow classmate Alphonso Taft. Informally, the group is known as “Bones”, and members have been known as “Bonesmen”. President George HW Bush, his son President George W. Bush, and the latter’s 2004 Presidential opponent Senator John Kerry are members of Skull and Bones. Formed in 1832 as a result of a dispute among Yale’s debating societies, Linonia, Brothers in Unity, and Calliope over the Phi Beta Kappa awards; its original name was “The Order of Skull and Bones.” Membership selection: Skull and Bones selects new members every spring as part of Yale University’s “Tap Day.” The most recent Tap Day was held on April 16, 2009. Every year, Skull and Bones selects fifteen men and women of the junior class to join the society. Skull and Bones traditionally “tapped” those that it viewed as campus leaders and other notable figures for its membership. Traditionally, groups such as the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, Yale Political Union, and Yale Daily News were well represented. The president of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity is strongly considered for membership every year (George W. Bush is the most famous example). In addition, captains of various sports teams …