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4 comments
Maybe one of the Harkness family perhaps? There is a passing resemblance to Stephen V. Harkness.
I read on a Saybrook webpage that somewhere in that area there's a carving of Anson Phelps Stokes (1874–1958), former Secretary of the University. Maybe that's what this is. Here's a photo of (and article about) him: https://yalealumnimagazine.com/articles/3048-midlife-career-change
We wondered the same thing, A. Schapiro, but it turns out the Stokes carving is around the corner in Wrexham Court. Maro Sciacchitano, I think a member of the Harkness family is a good guess—-possibly Charles W., for whom the entire quadrangle is a memorial. Someone on Instagram posited that it's Wilbur Cross. She noted that the carving seems to have been added after the building was built; Cross became especially prominent after the quad was built and died in 1948.
It looks like Cross and he was both prodigal in labors for the public good (governor of CT) and a guide to all things fine (Professor of English, Dean of the Grad School, and literary critic).