Links Club

The Links is a private club in New York City. It is located at 36 East 62nd Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City.^[1][2] Charles B. Macdonald, a golf champion and founder of the United States Golf Association, started the Links in 1917 as a place where powerful members of the golf world could keep the true spirit of the game alive.

Links Club in November 2023

History

The club was established in 1916–1917 by Charles B. Macdonald, in a building designed in the Georgian Revival architectural style by Cross & Cross.^[2][3] In the 1960s, it was "a preferred social gathering spot for America's most powerful chief executives."^[4] By 2010, it was still a "preserve of the old banking elite", but not all members were WASPs.^[1]

Notable members in 1955

Source:^[5]

A sampling of members in 1955 is listed below:

Government and diplomacy

• Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States
• Winthrop W. Aldrich, ambassador to Great Britain
• Arthur A. Ballantine, Undersecretary of the Treasury and lawyer
• Prescott S. Bush, U.S. Senator and father of President Bush (41)
• Charles E. Daniel, U.S. Senator from South Carolina
• Thomas E. Dewey, governor of New York
• C. Douglas Dillon, U.S. ambassador to France, Future Secretary of the Treasury
• Joseph E. Davies, U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union
• Thomas S. Gates, Jr., future U.S. Secretary of Defense
• Walter S. Gifford, former chairman of A T & T, former Ambassador to the U.K.
• Stanton Griffis, U.S. ambassador to Poland, Egypt, Spain and Argentina
• Amory Houghton, CEO, Corning Glass Works, future U.S. Congressman
• George M. Humphrey, Secretary of the Treasury
• Herbert C. Hoover Jr., son of the 31st President, Undersecretary of State and a member of the President's cabinet
• John A. McCone, future director of the C.I.A.
• Jean Monnet, diplomat and founding father of the European Union
• Winthrop Rockefeller, son of John D. Rockefeller and Governor of Arkansas
• Sir William Wiseman, British intelligence agent and banker
• Cyrus R. Vance, future U.S. Secretary of State
• John Hay Whitney, future U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain

Military

• Oscar C. Badger, a four-star admiral in the U.S. Navy
• Ralph A. Bard, undersecretary of the U.S. Navy
• Dunbar W. Bostwick, lt. colonel, U.S. Army, helped organize Normandy invasion
• Lucius D. Clay, U.S. general, Eisenhower deputy and "father" of the Berlin airlift
• Robert A. Lovett, former U.S. Secretary of Defense
• Paul Nitze, future Secretary of the Navy
• Elwood R. Quesada, lieutenant general, U.S.A.F.
• Stanley R. Resor, future U.S. Secretary of the Army
• Kenneth Royall, Army brigadier general, last person to serve as Secretary of War
• James Hopkins Smith Jr., U.S. Secretary of the Navy
• William Bedell Smith, Eisenhower's chief of staff in WWII, four-star general, former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union and former C.I.A director
• Harold E. Talbott, Secretary of the Air Force
• James H. Doolittle, U.S. general and famed aviator

Industry

• Sewell L. Avery, chairman of Montgomery Ward
• Stephen D. Bechtel of the engineering and construction company
• Sosthenes Behn, founder of ITT Corporation
• Roger M. Blough, president of U.S. Steel Corporation
• Harold Boeschenstein, chairman of Owens-Corning
• Richard L. Bowditch, chairman U.S. Chamber of Commerce
• H.S.M. Burns, British president of Shell Oil Company
• Louis S. Cates, Chairman of Phelps Dodge
• Owen R. Cheatham, chairman of Georgia Pacific Corporation
• Colby M. Chester, chairman of General Foods Corporation
• Hugh J. Chisholm, president of International Paper
• George H. Coppers, chairman of Nabisco
• Cleo F. Craig, president of AT&T
• Walter F. Dillingham, “the Baron of Hawaiian Industry”
• Richard R. Depree, president of Procter & Gamble
• Benjamin F. Fairless, CEO of U.S. Steel
• Henry Ford II, president of the Ford Motor Company
• J. Peter Grace Jr., Grace Chemical CEO
• Augustus C. Long, CEO of Texaco
• Henry R. Luce, publisher of Time Magazine
• Joseph H. McConnell, former president of NBC
• George W. Merck, president of Merck pharmaceuticals
• Roger Milliken, CEO of Milliken textiles
• Morehead Patterson, chairman of AMF
• G. Willing Pepper, president of the Scott Paper Company
• Gwilym A. Price, president of Westinghouse
• Edgar Monsanto Queeny, chairman of Monsanto Corporation
• Donald J. Russell, future CEO of Southern Pacific Railroad
• Sidney A. Swensrud, chairman Gulf Oil
• Walter C. Teagle, retired chairman of Standard Oil
• Thomas J. Watson Jr., president of IBM
• Charles E. Wilson, former president of General Electric

Finance

• Norborne Berkeley, president of Chemical Bank
• Edward Eagle Brown, chairman of the First National Bank of Chicago
• Paul C. Cabot, founded State Street Corporation and started the first mutual fund
• Asa V. Call, president of Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company
• Jean Cattier, Partner at White Weld & Co, and Chairman of the European American Bank^[6]
• George Champion, chairman, Chase Manhattan Bank
• J. Luther Cleveland, chairman of the Guaranty Trust Company
• S. Sloan Colt, president of the Bankers Trust Company
• Isaac B. Grainger, president of Chemical Bank and future president U.S.G.A.
• Benjamin H. Griswold III, chairman of Alex, Brown
• E. Roland Harriman, co-founder of Brown Brothers Harriman
• Devereux C. Josephs, chairman of the Board New York Life Insurance
• John J. McCloy, future chairman, Chase Manhattan Bank, President World Bank
• Henry S. Morgan, grandson of J.P. Morgan and co-founder of Morgan Stanley
• Ralph Owen, chairman of American Express
• Elmore C. Patterson, future CEO of J.P. Morgan
• Ralph T. Reed, future CEO of American Express
• David Rockefeller, future chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank
• J. Stillman Rockefeller, president National City Bank
• Howard C. Sheperd, chairman of National City Bank
• Harold Stanley, co-founder of Morgan Stanley
• Dean Witter, founder of Dean Witter investment firm

Aircraft and aviation

• William E. Boeing, founder of the Boeing Airplane Company
• F. Trubee Davison, WWI Naval Aviator
• Robert E. Gross, president of Lockheed Aircraft
• Frederick B. Rentschler, chairman of Pratt & Whitney Aircraft
• Edward V. Rickenbacker, World War I ace pilot
• Leon A. Swirbul, founder of Grumman Aircraft

Born rich

• Marshall Field, heir to the department store fortune
• James H. McGraw Jr., heir to the book publishing company
• Paul Mellon, heir to the Mellon banking fortune and philanthropist
• Howard Phipps, heir to the Carnegie Steel partner Henry Phipps Jr.
• Joseph N. Pew, heir to Sun Oil fortune, co-founder of the Pew Charitable Trusts
• J. Watson Webb, film maker and heir to the Vanderbilt fortune

Golf and other pursuits

• Morton G. Bogue, former president of the U.S.G.A.
• C. Suydam Cutting, explorer
• Donald K. David, dean of the Harvard BusinessSchool
• Arthur H. Dean, chairman of the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell
• Childs Frick, paleontologist and son of Steel magnate Henry Clay Frick
• Totton P. Heffelfinger, president of the U.S.G.A.
• Eugene V. Homans. Bobby Jones defeated Homans at Merion to win the grand slam in 1930
• Roger D. Lapham, Mayor of San Francisco and co-founder of Cypress Point Club
• Robert Montgomery, actor
• Alfred Easton Poor, architect
• Roland L. Redmond, president Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Archie M. Reid, secretary of the U.S.G.A.
• Clifford Roberts, co-founder of Augusta National Golf Club

Other

• Jack C. Massey^[7]

1955 members featured on the cover of Time Magazine

Source:^[5]

• Charles Wilson
• Colby Chester
• Cyrus Vance
• David Rockefeller
• Dwight Eisenhower
• Douglas Dillon
• Eddie Rickenbacker
• George Merck
• Gwilym Price
• Henry Ford II
• Herbert Hoover Jr.
• James Doolittle
• John McCloy
• Joseph Davies
• Joseph Pew
• Lucius Clay
• Roger Blough
• Roger Lapham
• Stillman Rockefeller
• Thomas Dewey
• Thomas Watson
• Trubee Davison
• Walter Teagle
• Winthrop Rockefeller

Other References

• List of traditional gentlemen's clubs in the United States
• Article on the clubhouse and its architecture.