# 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. 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.

## 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. In the 1960s, it was "a preferred social gathering spot for America's most powerful chief executives." By 2010, it was still a "preserve of the old banking elite", but not all members were WASPs.

## Notable members in 1955

Source:
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
* 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

### 1955 members featured on the cover of Time Magazine

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