I still don't have an answer to my question, but here's an update on my check:

In short, going to the top does result in action, and the branch manager learned something new today: one is not required to provide a social security number to cash a check over $10,000, despite what some newer regulations might say.

The CEO's office did have someone get back to me, and she was very friendly and extremely helpful. She said she was going to find the cash for me, and where would be the most convenient branch to pick it up? I told her my first and second preferences, and she said to give her a little bit of time but she would be back to me with the word. Sure enough, a couple hours later she told me the cash was waiting for me at my hometown branch.

When I first went in, the branch manager greeted me warmly and invited me over to his desk. We exchanged trivialities and then got down to business. He informed me that they would need me to provide them with additional information because the amount of the check was over $10,000, of which the CEO's assistant already informed me. He handed me a "Check Cashing Application" to fill out. I was slightly agitated by this because I did not know for what I as applying (begging). I filled out my full name, c/o address, and left the SSN, occupation and phone number fields blank. I handed it back to him and when he got around to looking at it he said he would need me to fill it out completely. I then asked him, why is this an application, what am I applying for? He replied that it's an application form for cashing a check over $10,000, which was an obvious answer, but I guess he didn't know how to answer such a stupid question. So I stated that I wasn't interested in applying for anything, and scratched out the words "Application" in two places, then proceeded to fill in my occupation as "Consultant" (I'm sure there's something better I can use in the future, like maybe prepending "Private" to some description of my craft) and my phone number (since they already had it). I put a line in the SSN area and handed it back to him. He then asked me, you don't have a "social"? To which I honestly replied, no (a "social"? don't got one). He then said the only thing he was capable of saying in such a situation, which was "We need to have a social to cash this check", to which I again replied with a very straight face, I don't have one.

Flustered, he excused himself and made a call and spoke to someone in a very quiet voice and explained the situation. He received some instruction, then hung up and told me someone was looking into this and he would have an answer shortly. I told him no problem. He sent off an e-mail with some information to his overseer and we waited. After several long moments, he began typing something on his computer. Being optimistic, I figured it was him replying by e-mail and confirming that everything was a go and he would cash the check. And that's exactly what it was, everything was fine and he just needed to go get the cash from the vault. A few minutes later after some note counting and I was walking out of there with an envelope stuffed with crisp 2006 series hundos in sequential serial number order.

So, no, you do not have to give a social security number to complete a transaction in excess of $10,000 if you are not an account holder of the bank, or you do not have a social security number. That myth is busted