become a powerful institution at Phillips Academy and to erect a handsome pillared Society house
on School Street.
The second Society of the seven that would survive until 1950 was A.U.V. [George Bush's group].
The letters stood for Auctoritas, Unitas, Veritas. [Authority, Unity, Truth.] This organization
resulted from a merger of two ... earlier Societies ... in 1877. A new constitution was drawn up ...
providing for four cScriptor [secretary], and Quaestor [magistrate or inquisitor].... hief officers--Imperator [commander], Vice Imperator [vice-commander],
Like K.O.A, A.U.V. had an elaborate initiation ceremony. Once a pledge had been approved by the
Faculty, he was given a letter with a list of rules he was to follow. He was to be in the cemetery
every night from 12:30 to 5:00, deliver a morning paper to each member of the Society eachmorning, must not comb or brush his hair nor wash his face or hands, smoke nothing but a clay pipe (^)
with Lucky Strike tobacco, and not speak to any student except members of A.U.V.
After the pledge had memorized these rules, his letter of instruction was burned. The pledge had
now become a scut '' and was compelled to learn many mottoes and incantations. On Friday nightof initiation week the scut was taken to Hartigan's drugstore downtown and given a scut sundae, '' (^)
which consisted of pepper, ice cream, oysters, and raw liver. Later that night he reported to the
South Church cemetery, where he had to wait for two hours for the members to arrive. There
followed the usual horseplay--the scut was used as a tackling dummy, threats were made to lock
him in a tomb, and various other ceremonies observed. On Saturday afternoon the scut was taken ona long walk around town, being forced to stop at some houses and ask for food, to urinate on a few
porches, and generally to make a fool of himself. On Saturday night came the initiation proper. The
scut was prepared by reporting to the cellar in his underwear and having dirt and flour smeared all
over his body. He was finally cleaned up and brought to the initiation room, where a solemn
ceremony followed, ending with the longed-for words Let him have light, '' at which point hisblindfold was removed, some oaths were administered, and the boy was finally a member.... Shortly after 1915 the present [A.U.V.] house was constructed. From then until the Society crisis of the 1940s, A.U.V. continued strong and successful. There were, to be sure, some problems. In the mid-1920spledging students illegally--without the approval of the Faculty guardian. In one, the scholarship average of the Society dropped abysmally. The members had also been initiation a boy had (^) been so battered that he was unable to run in the Andover-Exeter track meet.... Yet the Society managed to overcome these problems and well deserved its position as one of the big three among the school's Societies....@s1@s9 From all available evidence, at Andover prep George Bush was completely obsessed with status, with seeming to be important. His 1980 campaign biography boasts that he achieved this goal: There was, as there always is at any institution, an elitism in terms of the group that ran things,
the power group among the boys who recognized each other as peers. George was among this
group, but for him it was natural.... ''@s2@s0
The A.U.V. roster, 32 members including George Bush, is given in the Andover Class of 1942
yearbook. Why was it natural '' for George to be among this group ''?
The hierarchical top banana of the A.U.V. in George's class was Godfrey Anderson (RocRockefeller. In the yearbook just above the A.U.V. roster is a photograph of Rocky Rockefeller ''ky '') (^)
and `` Lem [Lehman F.] Beardsley ''; Rockefeller stands imperiously without a shirt, Beardsley
scowls from behind sunglasses. Certainly the real monarch of George Bush's Andover secret
society, and George's sponsor, was this Rocky's father, Godfrey S. Rockefeller.