Three of the fellows went on to become famousHarvard professors: W.V.O. Quine, B.F. Skinner,and Garrett Birkhoff' 32.

The society met for its first dinner on Monday,September 25, 1933. The opening statement ofprinciples was written by Lowell and has been readat the annual opening dinner ever since.

"You will practice the virtues and avoid thesnares of the scholar," Lowell wrote. "You will becourteous to your elders who have explored to thepoint from which you may now advance, and helpfulto your juniorswho will progress further by reason of yourlabors."

In an interview this week, Quine, now PierceProfessor of Philosophy emeritus, described histime as one of the first junior fellows as "threeidyllic years." Quine said he was inCzechoslovakia on a traveling fellowship afterearning his Ph.D. when he received a cable fromWhitehead announcing his selection as a juniorfellow.

"It was great break: we were in a deepdepression, I was married and jobs were scarce,"the professor said. Quine said he never evenapplied for the fellowship: "I think I might bethe only junior fellow never interviewed."

The Society of Fellows has been part of Quine'slife ever since, he said.

He regularly attended the Tuesday and Fridayluncheons in the society's rooms in Eliot Houseuntil he was appointed senior fellow in 1984.Senior fellows are not permitted at the lunches sothat conversation may be more free. The weeklyevent for all fellows, past and present, is theMonday night dinner, which Quine still attendsonce or twice a month.

Hollis Professor of Mathematicks and NaturalPhilosophy Andrew M. Gleason, a former juniorfellow who now chairs the society, said thesociety has changed since the time when Quine wasa fellow.

"The Society was founded originally with theexplicit purpose of getting people out of the[Ph.d. octopus]," Gleason said. To achieve this,the society established an age limit of 28 forjunior fellows.

Since then, the age limit has been eliminatedand most junior fellows today already have or arefinishing their Ph.D.'s, Gleason said.

The Society has made other changes to keep upwith the outside world, according to Gleason.After decades of being all-male, women now may beadmitted to the society.

In some ways, the society has not fulfilledLowell's expectations. The president originallyexpected the junior fellows to live and eat in thehouses.

Since very few fellows have taken advantage ofthis benefit in recent years, the society haseliminated the housing option and boosted theannual stipend to its present level of $35,000.

And the society has never played the criticalrole originally envisioned for it.

President James B. Conant '14 wrote in hisfirst President's report in 1933 that "it isunnecessary to point out what a stimulatinginfluence to the houses and the graduate schoolsthe presence of these junior fellows will be."