"Was Flynn tight with Tillinghast, Crump or Thomas? Was Wilson tight with Crump or Tillinghast? Was Thomas tight with Crump?"
Mr. MacWood:
All good and interesting questions. I have some ideas but you must understand none of them you asked about actually wrote about or spoke about their relationships specifically with one another, that I'm aware of, other than those few times in the forwards of their books that most all of us are well aware of at this point, and so it's the little things we've run across over the years that allow me to answer questions like that always knowing they can only be my speculations and conjecture.
Flynn and Tillinghast?
I think those two were just fine with one another and that seems to be borne out by the fact that apparently Flynn's construction arm hooked up with Tillie over Sunnehanna, at least and maybe more. You need to understand Flynn and Toomey and Flynn had a really dedicated crew, a number of whom lived at their Bucks County farm where a lot of independent agronomic research and experimentation was carried out. I'm not sure Tillie ever had that kind of dedicated construction crew and that may've been the reason he hooked up with Flynn over Sunnehanna. I believe Tillie also recommended Flynn for PCC. So I think those two were tight---eg typical Philly School type collaboration the way we think of it.
Flynn and Crump and Thomas?
I think they were all tight and that seems to be borne out by the fact that Thomas and Flynn were apparently both members of Pine Valley when Crump was still around. Geoff Shack also believes Thomas returned from California to oversee the construction of a couple of greens or at least one after Crump died. The one in particular may've been right nine that was done to Alison's specs.
Wilson and Crump and Wilson and Tillinghast?
Wilson never mentioned Tillie that I know of but he did mention Crump a lot in those many years of the "agronomy letters". But it seems odd to me for some reason with Wilson and Crump but that just may be that Wilson really was an awful humble guy about the things he was doing and did. I think Wilson (Hugh) was always a member of PV and I think Crump may've given him carte blanche, at least with things agronomic but in many ways his brother Alan was far more plugged in and participatory at Pine Valley through Crump's life and afterwards. But the reason for that is Alan was never remotely involved in other projects and certainly in Merion East and West to the degree Hugh was.
It looks to me like Hugh Wilson had more to do with PV and was down there a whole lot more for whatever reason than Crump was at Merion. But that might be explained by the sort of odd arrangement of Crump's life and where he lived and how. Crump, as a man, was probably the most complex of all and most interestingly without really showing it. Everyone who knew him seemed to love him---he apparently was humble, kind and gracious with a good self-deprecating sense of humor while at the same time being driven and focused but with some demons under the surface which you probably caught in your essay on him as well as anyone. Crump really did solicit seemingly anyone and everyone's opinion on things but if he didn't want to do something he just didn't do it and he never bothered to criticize anyone for their suggestions with perhaps the famously notable example of Colt's idea for his 2nd green placement. The way Crump ultimately dealt with Travis' public proposal to make PV reversible (apparently initially encouraged by Crump) is a good example of how Crump was with most everyone to do with the architecture down there, in my opinion.
Tillie was certaianly a confidante to Crump going way back to ACCC when they all played so much golf together but for some odd reason Tillie was never a member of PV when everyone else we're talking about seemed to be, even though Tillie pretty obviously had some serious input on a few things to do with the design of PV.
Ross on the other hand didn't seem to get involved much with that crowd, at least not at that time. When Ross saw Pine Valley that one and only time when Crump was around it was not Crump who had him down there it was someone else who reported to Crump later what Ross said about PV which was impressive.
Maybe the Philly School guys didn't really let Ross in but I think it was Ross who probably figured he didn't exactly need them. Ross had his own impressive operation and group he depended on all of whom basically worked for him not with him. Ross was not the type who naturally wanted to freely collaborate with other architects that much. He had his own impressive reputation, his own ideas and should probably be considered to have had his own unique "school" in the history and evolution of American architecture. Geoff Shackelford gave him his own "school" in his book "The Golden Age of Golf Design" as well he should have, in my opinion.