A century of learning with the Sphex Club

It’s a closed organization, open only by invitation, but not a secret one. Any member of the Sphex Club can tell you about the group’s inner workings without having to kill you afterward.

Moreover, members of the Sphex Club don’t raise money for any causes or support any political candidates. They are male and female, black and white, liberal and conservative and moderate.

So what do they do? They learn.

“In a way, I guess this is a throwback to the old English supper clubs,” said Jim Elson, a Sphex member who has recently finished a history of the club’s first 100 years. “As far as I’ve been able to find out, it is still pretty much unique.”

Described initially as a “cultural organization for men,” the club was formed on Oct. 5, 1910, by Dr. Mosby Perrow (Lynchburg’s first director of public health), attorney Armistead Long and Randolph-Macon Woman’s College chemistry professor Fernando W. Martin. The membership was limited to 30, the only requirement being that each member periodically write and deliver a paper to the rest of the group at one of the monthly meetings.

“The name ‘Sphex’ has always been of intriguing interest,” wrote Elson in his history. “To avoid misunderstanding, it should always be pronounced carefully. At its inception, the organization was called the ‘Specs’ club with the explanation that the letters of the name stood for Social, Philosophy, Education, Civics and Science. Very shortly after the first meeting, ‘Specs’ had become ‘Sphex,’ probably because someone discovered that ‘Sphex’ is a Greek word for a stinging insect.

“There is a tradition that this name change came about because Sphex described the stinging comments to which members’ papers were sometimes subjected in the discussion sessions that followed their presentation.”

No wonder Joan Foster admitted to being nervous about presenting her first paper to the group — even if she is Lynchburg’s mayor. For others, the responsibility evokes old term paper nightmares.

Some of these papers reflect the occupation of the writer, but not always. Centra Health CEO George Dawson, for instance, once spoke about Robert Frost.

Over the years, Sphex membership has included Lynchburg’s best, brightest and richest.

Some of the more notable have been Lynchburg School Superintendent E.C. Glass (yup, the high school guy), R-MWC President Theodore Jack, state Sen. A.F. Thomas, city managers R.W.B. Hart, David Norman and Kimball Payne, First Colony Life CEO George Stewart, Babcock & Wilcox nuclear plant director William Breazele, Del. Joan Jones, Rabbi Morris Shapiro, Liberty University president A. Pierre Guillermin, Judge Dale Harris, Judge William Sweeney (who spoke a few years ago about the Haysom murder case) and Mort Sajadian of Amazement Square.

“The biggest difference now,” Elson said, “is that we only have one member who is affiliated with a for-profit business. At one time, business owners made up a significant percentage of the membership.”

That change probably reflects the fact that the city now has few large homegrown businesses. I did wonder why our two News & Advance members were not included in the “for-profit” category.

The club also holds an annual meeting with a speaker. This year, it was Vivian Pinn, a Dunbar High School graduate prominent in women’s health issues.

In an age when people seem to be becoming more clannish and politically polarized, there is considerable charm in the concept of a diverse group getting together and then learning something new.

Meanwhile, club historian Elson would love to find artifacts of the club’s early days — perhaps a copy of a paper that was delivered (few survive from the early years) or an organizational pin that was given to members in the 1920s (“I’ve never seen one,” he said).

To their credit, the Sphex members don’t appear to take themselves too seriously. One-time club secretary Ray Williamson once compared the group to “a dinosaur walking down Main Street.”

A smart dinosaur.