Berzelius (secret society)
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- For other meanings see Berzelius.
Berzelius is a secret society at Yale University named for the Swedish scientist Jöns Jakob Berzelius, considered one of the founding fathers of modern chemistry. 'BZ', as its members call their society, is the oldest of the societies of the now-defunct Sheffield Scientific School, the institution which from 1854-1956 was the sciences and engineering college of Yale University.
Berzelius was founded in 1848, making it the third-oldest secret society at Yale, after Skull and Bones (founded 1832) and Scroll and Key (1841), and before Yale's other societies, such as Wolf's Head (1884) and Book and Snake (1863). Berzelius became a senior society in the tradition of Skull and Bones in 1933 when the Sheffield Scientific School was integrated into Yale University.[1] [2] [3] Its alumni trust organization, the Colony Foundation[4] (with its governing board, the Colony Council), owns the society's building. Outsiders refer to the building as a 'tomb', the customary appellation for a secret society structure at Yale, however, BZ members refer to their building as 'The Hall.' This is likely a transferred linguistic remnant of the tradition of the 'Sheff' secret societies, which had 'halls' for residential use and 'tombs' as separate meeting places, in contrast to the Yale College senior secret societies' which maintained only 'tombs.' (The Architects section below describes BZ's former second building.) (Wolf's Head, for its own reasons, also refers to its undergraduate domicile as "the Hall" rather than a "tomb".) Berzelius brings noted Alumni as well as non-Member figures to a Sunday Evening Speakers series.
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[edit] Architects of Berzelius Buildings
- Don Barber. (1908 or 1910, current society building. Style likened to "blank cube" but with classical ornamentation.) [5]
- Henry Bacon and James Brite. (completed 1898, residential building, no longer extant, brick Neo-Renaissance-style dormitory. Bacon was an American Beaux-Arts architect best remembered for his severe Greek Doric Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. (built 1915–1922), which was his final project. Yale purchased the building in 1933 for student housing and later used it for faculty offices. The building was demolished in 1969 to make way for construction of the Yale Health Services Center, 17 Hillhouse Avenue. Pictured at [6] and [7]
Architectural historian Patrick L. Pinnell notes in his 1999 book "Yale University" Princeton Architectural Press ISBN 1568981678 [[8]].) that Berzelius sold to the Scroll and Key Society the site on which the latter erected its own tomb.
Architectural historian Scott Meacham cites both Berzelius buildings in his study of Yale and Dartmouth society and fraternity architecture. [9]
The surviving ca. 1908-10 building's location, set off from the more active center of Yale's campus, lends privacy to Berzelius' members, and its unadorned largely blank exterior conveys to outsiders the deceptive sense that nothing much happens inside - a strategy arguably more effective at discouraging prying eyes than the unmistakable 'stay out' message architecturally conveyed by the monumental buildings of others of Yale's societies, such as Skull and Bones and Wolf's Head. In addition to the ritual meeting room, dining area and numerous study rooms, there are below-ground activity rooms with a pool table and ping pong table for recreation. BZ recently underwent a major restoration. [[10]]
[edit] Membership
Notable members include:
- Frank Shorter (b. 1947), Olympic Gold Medalist. Five time national champion American long distance runner and winner of the marathon race at the 1972 Summer Olympics.
- Tony Knowles (b. 1943), Governor (D) of Alaska (1994 - 2002).
- William Proxmire (1915 – 2005), United States Senator (D) from Wisconsin (1957-1989). An early critic of the Vietnam War, and an outspoken campaigner against wasteful government spending.
- Dave Dellinger (1915 - 2004), renowned pacifist and activist for nonviolent social change. One of the most influential American radicals in the 20th century, famous for being one of the Chicago Seven, a group of protesters whose disruption of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago led to charges of conspiracy. The ensuing court case was turned by Dellinger and his co-defendants into a nationally-publicized platform for putting the Vietnam War on trial.
- A. Peter Dewey (1916-September 26, 1945), shot by accident by Viet Minh troops on September 26, 1945, the first American casualty in the Vietnam War. Pictured with his BZ Class of '39 [[11]]
- William Warren Scranton, (b. 1917), Republican Governor of Pennsylvania from 1963 to 1967. United States Ambassador to the United Nations 1976 to 1977. Also pictured with his BZ Class of '39: [[12]]
- Levi Jackson (1926 - 2000), first African American member of a Yale secret society. Elected by his teammates the first African American to captain an Ivy League football team. [[13]]
- Fenno Heath, Yale Music professor and former long-time Director of the Yale Glee Club.
[edit] Mission
The society takes its intellectual mission very seriously, invoking Socrates' exhortation: "The unexamined life is not worth living” as well as stating to its prospective members that: "Berzelius provides opportunities for achieving insights through an open, honest exchange of experiences, passions, and opinions. This process prepares its members — whose diversity is highly valued — for an active, intellectually vigorous, and moral life, giving them a place and time for contemplation and reflection so that they might rise boldly to the challenges of their lives, devoted to good character, tolerant of others, and willing to serve their communities, while forging links of mind to mind in a chain unbroken."
