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The president emeritus of The College Board hands you his current card. "George H. Hanford," it reads, "Symposiarch. The Canterbury Society." Turn the card over for partial enlightenment. Printed thereon are definitions: "Symposiarch: One who presides over a symposium. Symposium: To drink together. A convivial party as after a banquet in ancient Greece with music and conversation. A social gathering at which there is free interchange of ideas. A formal meeting at which several specialists deliver short addresses on a topic, or on related topics. Compare colloquium. A collection of opinions on a subject: esp. one published by a periodical. Discussion."
Harvard Magazine happens to know that Hanford refused to take over responsibility for the Canterbury Society--when he and his wife, Elaine, returned to Cambridge six years ago--unless he was given the title "symposiarch." He at one time belonged to an elite "cabinet," so called, that had a symposiarch, and he coveted the title (although not that particular symposiarchy).
Very well, but what is the Canterbury Society? Symposiarch Hanford '41, M.B.A. '43, explains, in the newsletter of the Harvard Varsity Club, more or less as follows.
Harvard's Canterbury Society is one of a kind. It is not, as its name suggests it might be, an exclusive academic coterie of religious or Chaucerian scholars. Rather, in the words of the late Boston Globe editor and columnist Victor O. Jones '28, G '29, NF '42, it "is composed of former non-athletic athletes, hockey players, most of whom can't skate, queer birds who think it's fun to get shot at without any chance to shoot back. In short...[all the] odd balls who used to play goalie on Harvard ice hockey teams."
"This Olympian society," as another reporter has dubbed it, was founded in 1959 to honor the memory of George Wood "Skeets" Canterbury '01, coach of the Crimson's ice hockey goaltenders for nearly 40 years. It has three goals (sic): to pay annual tribute to Skeets, to sponsor the Canterbury Cups awarded each year to the outstanding men's and women's goaltenders in the Ivy League, and to meet annually to exchange reminiscences about heroic deeds on the ice and in the nets.
No speeches. Just a toast to Skeets and recognition of special guests--both happening before dinner so that those who want to can get over to the Bright Hockey Center to watch the Zamboni groom the ice and listen to the Band.
No dues. Just a charge for dinner and voluntary contributions to cover the costs of mailings and the cups.
The symposiarch's job is to decree which Saturday evening home game to meet before and what chicken dish to have catered. The meeting place is traditionally "Chez Dillon," the lounge on the second floor of Dillon Field House. The topic assigned for prandial discussion is invariably ice hockey, with special emphasis on the fine art of goaltending.
~G.H.H.