Dewey founded the Lake Placid Club with his wife, Annie, in 1895, and helped to organize the Olympic Games there. The Lake Placid Club was a private institution with a policy of excluding Jews and other minorities. Close to 10 years later, the New York State Board of Regents received a petition demanding that Dewey be removed as State Librarian because of his ties to the Lake Placid Club. The Regents issued a formal rebuke, leading Dewey to resign his position in 1905.