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Louis Sullivan considered architecture as the “spiritualization of matter.” I have always taken his statement to mean that good architecture is hallowing in that it creates an enduring atmosphere that is heart-raising, and living in the house enriched our lives. I could not agree more. I have always believed that matter and spirit are one. Yes, I do love Spinoza and panentheism. And, in the case of the graduate and undergraduate brothers in ’24-’25, that belief is well-founded. Their spiritual sweat equity was real; it permeates every inch of our grand home.That spirit was evident, literally and intuitively, in The Castle when it was completed in 1925, and it has remained so for 120 years now. The compositional union of the grounds and the house give a sense of well-being, and it continues to resonate that very quality now. It safe to say that assert that our Omega Mu brotherhood wanted to create the preeminent architectural fraternity house at the University of Maine, and it still is. The Castle created, and continues to create, a sense of connection and compassion that cuts deep into our collective fraternal heart, mind, soul, and memory to lasting effect that will never wither and fade. The Castle has been a gift to each of us and our fraternal life since 1899, and we are thankful that we were all on the receiving end of such a gift. What could have been a lament in 1924 became a covenantal commitment of recovery to move forward and becoming even stronger because the wheel of time only goes forward and never back. The cross-generation chain of events that occurred was extraordinary. They did not exhibit the despairing outlook like Eliot’s “Hollow men” in spiritedly addressing what needed done and then doing to. None of them had clay feet. Maybe all of them had read and been inspired by this statement in the 1917 Prism:  With unequalled fraternal energy and devotion, they went from destruction to renewal. We can thank the humble yet daring leadership commitment of graduate brothers C.W. Mullen, Hosea B. Buck, Joseph F. Gould, George H. Hamlin, Charles E. Mullin, and all the undergraduate brothers, for guiding the transition to 79 College Avenue with their discriminative and discerning eyes set on our fraternal future. After the graduate brothers donated the land for upon which our Castle would be built, significant financial contributions were raised from the brotherhood, and then bold and meticulous architectural plans were drawn up the architectural firm of Crowell and Lancaster. They were superbly intelligent architects, and they knew they wanted to make a building that was beautifully proportioned in exhibiting the classic architectural cohesion of an English Tudor style home without excessive ornamentation, just clean sweeping vertical and horizontal lines that are visually pleasing to the eye. Construction commenced with acute coordination and attention to detail to build our splendid fraternal home. As fraternal providence would have it, our esteemed brother, George Hamlin, surveyed the property upon which The Castle would be built, and then he supervised the construction of the Castle to its successful completion. The undergraduate brothers were consistently present from start to finish in participating in the process, and in doing so they established our Omega Mu paradigm of commitment: “Hundred Up.” The superior craftsmanship of The Castle shows that in the darker, thornier times of our fraternal history, when whirlwind changes occur, fluid fraternal lines and precise vision and transformative intentions have always moved us tirelessly forward by unyielding fraternal common consent, with guiding power and purpose. Our graduate and undergraduate brothers certainly succeeded, splendidly so. It was hard-won, but it was done collectively like an orchestra creating the most harmonically attractive, emotionally affecting, fraternity house on College Avenue, and it remains an affecting sight today. The effect of the finished architectural space of The Castle on all the brothers who have lived in The Castle since its completion is incalculable in terms of fraternal well-being, joy, contentment, and happiness, and that is the overriding triumph of any great building. From every generational point of view, the fraternal good of Omega Mu is no secret, and with our fine-tuned fraternal focus, the preservation of The Castle, and the perpetuation of our Omega Mu brotherhood into the future, is assured. We have always been a spirited, hopeful, industrious brotherhood, and that wealth is immeasurable. To use the spirit of Colonel Strong Vincent’s order to Colonel Joshua Chamberlain at Little Round Top on July 2nd, 1863, at Gettysburg, “Hazard all costs and hold this ground.” We will do the same for the future of our brotherhood and The Castle, and that is assured. Our graduate and undergraduate brothers certainly succeeded, splendidly so. It was hard-won, but it was accomplished collectively like an orchestra creating the most harmonically attractive, emotionally affecting, fraternity house on College Avenue, and it remains an affecting sight to this day. Le Corbusier was right, architecture can help change the life of people, and in 1925 our brothers moved into the new house and did not look back. They were filled, no doubt, with estate joy to walk through the front door of our beautiful home. That were happily home! The life-threatening dashes into our flame-consumed house were a distant memory as they walked into the historic dignity of the new home in 1925 with the same down-to-earth fraternal good that had guided Omega Mu since 1899. Our graduate and undergraduate brothers clearly understood the truth of I. M. Pei's statement about historic memory: “I believe one owes it to one’s own existence to leave something behind that will last.” Our Castle has lasted in its service to our brotherhood for the last 120 years, an everlasting classic.    The emerging social, cultural, and political harmonies and rhythms of the nineteen-twenties were charming and liberating, as well as forbiddingly scary and apocalyptically destructive, and the impact of each would be felt by our Omega Mu brothers who moved into The Castle in 1925. Because they had each participated in the construction process, it must have deeply rewarding to walk in and sit loose and casual in the leather chairs and couches in the living room and library, light a briar pipe, and sigh with satisfaction at their collective accomplishment that they had persevered and not been weak-willed in creating their-our-graceful, attractive home. “Whew!” they must thought. Just another testimony of our enduring fraternal chain of visionary response.    Like the historically rich, interwoven variables that shaped, moved, rocked, and changed and challenged the nineteen-sixties, the twenties were a decade of equal visceral excitement, and penetrating and sweeping evolutionary growth and change, and deep joy and pain. As our brothers sat in The Castle, they probably listened to the new technological marvel that entered the world in 1920, the radio. They would have heard the election returns of the 1924 election when Calvin Coolidge beat Robert LaFollette and John Davis for the presidency,   and they very well might have listened to each and every radio broadcast of the Scopes Monkey Trial that was occurring in Dayton, Tennessee, in the summer of 1925, and Dayton was called “The Buckle of the Bible-Belt.” Although they probably did not know it, a Rutger’s Fiji, Dr. J. G. Lipman, was called by Clarence Darrow for the defense to give pertinent evidence on the evident truth of evolution, but Judge John Raulston from Fiery Gizzard, Tennessee, prohibited all such witnesses for the defense. Just as Willett Barrett liked to sing songs in the house before serving our country in World War I, most assuredly the brothers in the twenties and thirties sang the new songs by Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin, and Irving Berlin. Porter’s “I Get a Kick out of You” would have been one of those lyrically easy songs to be sung with particular intensity, just as it is today with all of us: “I get no kick from champagne. Mere alcohol doesn’t thrill me at all. So tell me why should it be true That I get a kick out of you.”   Unforgettable books were written the 20’s: The Great Gatsby, Babbitt, Farewell to Arms, and The Sound and the Fury. Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic in “The Spirit of St. Louis” and landed outside of Paris in 1927. Notre Dame’s “Four Horsemen” played their last game together in the 1925 Rose Bowl. The 1927 Yankees had a stellar 110-44 season, and Babe Ruth had a record setting home-run season. The Harlem Globetrotters were formed by Abe Saperstein in 1927. The Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 1929. Alphonse “Scarface” Capone reigned supreme in Chicago and “Lucky” Luciano was top boss in New York. The Klan politically controlled seven states, but the creative spark of the Harlem Renaissance would start the counter-narrative that would lead to social, artistic, and political equality in the following decades. Jazz music spread from New Orleans to Chicago, Washington, and New York. Jazz influenced clothing styles, broke racial barriers in clubs like the Cotton Club and the Apollo where patrons sat together to hear Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and Duke Ellington, and it influenced the new dance styles like the "Charleston," the "Foxtrot," and the "Lindy Hop.”   World leadership changed ominously in the 20’s: Joseph Stalin defeated Trotsky and became the new leader of Russia; Benito Mussolini established totalitarian control over Italy in 1925; and Adolph Hitler became head of the Nazis party in 1921. And, then, on October 29th, 1929, “Black Thursday” hit Wall Street, and the decade ended unquietly with a long-running economic shadow that would sweep across the nation and around the world and saturate the lives of people with souless despair. On this shattering historic note, the nineteen-twenties came to a close. Through it all, our Omega Mu brothers lived, grew, and enjoyed the benefits of brotherhood in the new Castle by persisting and persevering in giving their all for the house, each other, and the University of Maine. Certainly, the Ancient Glittering Eyes” of our Q.T.V. brothers’ were smiling in pride because of their continuing efforts. That is the spirit of fraternal union that generates fraternal good will and uncommon loyalty.   Devotional and steadfast are just two words that come to my mind when I think about Omega Mu. Brother-to-brother, generation-to-generation, decade-to-decade, century-to-century-to-century, these words have always defined us a brotherhood in movement toward our future with no shifting affection in essence, form, and historic meaning. This home of ours is filled with all of our memories, remembrances, and conversations since 1925. We are one unmatched brotherhood and fraternal home, in spirit and material fact, literally, at 79 College Avenue. But it’s more, much more, when we are all there together.
Fraternally, Chip Chapman, ’82 Perge!
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   There is no fraternal brotherhood quite like Omega Mu at the University of Maine, and there is no fraternity house that is as bracingly beautiful as ours. We are proud of the beauty of The Castle and our fraternal excellence. We aim high. And I believe that it is safe to say that the stars seem to align fairly regularly throughout our combined Q.T.V. - Fiji fraternal history for good things to happen socially, academically, and athletically. Just as it took teamwork, commitment, and consummate skill to plan and construct the architectural charm of our house on College Ave, our brothers have achieved tremendous success in the aforementioned because of their determination, commitment, character, and a desire to win. Success in anything is grounded in the grace of individual and team discipline, and our Omega Mu athletes have exemplified that level of unswerving workmanship and zeal for success throughout our fraternal history. The sacrifice of time was worth the effort for them and the student at the University of Maine who watched them play. They created many warm memories through all the years. It is a heady athletic legacy that started within a few ears of the founding of the University of Maine on 1865. For the eminence of their athletic success; and, above all, for being our Omega Mu brothers, we are all proud.  So we must remember these QTV and Omega Mu brothers with fraternal amplitude because these brothers, with sound unflinching desire and instinct, are part of the heritage of athletic excellence at the University of Maine. With consummate skill and attentiveness, they understood that being on an athletic team, like our fraternal life in The Castle, was a communal responsibility in acting in concert with their teammates to achieve success. The key points to note for each of these brothers was their willingness to join, to belong, and to work with genuine commitment in order to deepen their individual athletic skills in order to achieve team success. These brothers understood that the basis of any action in athletics was to deepen the collective root of work in the fun and creative expression of participating in varsity athletics, as well as in their Omega Mu fraternity life. And this is what is meant by community, fraternally and athletically, because the tonal and rhythmical patterns of successful engagement are the same for both, and this is as it should be because “Men of character are the conscience of society to which they belong.” Their considerable accomplishments claim our fraternal attention and respect, and they show us something fundamental about character and life. Therefore, in the linked soul and spirit of our long fraternal history, we gratefully remember and celebrate our QTV and Omega Mu brothers who participated on many varsity athletic teams at the University of Maine. Our scorecard is deep, and this is our proud cheer: Gimme an O, gimme an M, gimme an E, gimme a G, gimme an A, and so on. Then Omega Mu Fiji athletes! Omega Mu Fiji athletes! Omega Mu Fiji athletes! We are proud of all of our Omega Mu Fiji athlete brothers’.  The sheer numbers of brothers is an unalloyed triumph for the University of Maine and a testimony to the fraternal solidarity of our heart and soul for the good of the university since. It has been a splendid success for both, and that is good aesthetic order and historical consonance. That is Omega Mu, eminent and respectable. The inspiring evidence of our fraternal presence at the University of Maine will continue for the next 120 because the tradition of living a good life in communion with our brothers in The Castle, with the attendant fraternal responsibilities, grounding, fundamental decencies, joyous activities, participating on athletic teams, and then humbly pursuing our chosen academic passions, boldly and meticulously, is what being an Omen Mu brother is all about. And that is the beauty and pleasure of the life and life style of our brotherhood, the fraternal interconnectedness, that started in 1874. It is not imaginative speculation to assert that it will most assuredly continue for another 120 years, fraternally warm and historically grounded, and forever hopeful as young men continue to come through the single doorway of The Castle wishing to experience the uncommonly deep fostering good of our historically rich brotherhood that has fostered committed service to the University of Maine and each other from the very the very start in 1874. Regardless of the perceptions and wild imaginations and limited perspective of many naysayers of fraternity life, everything about our unified fraternal life in Omega Mu is compatible with the disciplined, interdependent expectations within society, convincingly so, period. What we have accomplished is of enduring human value for University of Maine, our brotherhood, and the integrity of The Castle. And on we go, Omega Mu brothers, ready to move into the next 120 years of our fraternal life at 79 College Avenue, Orono, Maine, with clarity of meaning, purpose, and allegiance. I do believe that Thoreau said it best: “What a difference, whether in all your walks, you meet only strangers, or in one house is one who knows you, and whom you know. To have a brother…How rare these things are.” We are a great fraternal team. “I'll say this, nothing is more important than family. We are brothers.” (Bill Soloby)  Fraternally, Chip Chapman "82 Perge!      Omega Mu Athlete pictorial |
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Charles F. Smith, 1910
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
As a career teacher of sixth graders to twelfth graders, I can say that I learned the truth of what the main character declared in the movie The Man Without a Face, “All teaching is an act of grace” in helping students to live well in developing a sturdiness and keenness of mind, as well as emotional, physical, and spiritual balance, and a range of intuitive and reasoning skills, with the hope that students will be able to step out into the world open, poised, steady, even-handed, loving, tolerant, and purposeful so that they can place their hands on the plow and begin turning a long furrow with an attitude of confidence in building the fiber of their individual lives, and, in doing so, adding to the commonweal, with an underlying sense of hope in the power of humanity. Good teaching is always pragmatic and idealistic, and we have had many Omega Mu brothers who understood that good teaching is an act of grace in embodying both principles.
The chief pillar and cardinal virtue for any college or university is the strength and devotion of the teachers, professors, instructors, administration, and support staff. They have a profound influence on so many people in clarifying and shaping the trajectory of life choices and career callings. We are proud of the efforts and accomplishments of the following brothers for the strong presence of their devoted service to the students at the University of Maine and other colleges and universities across the United States. They stayed abreast of the new academic developments, pedagogical techniques, and sustained a strong willingness to expand the knowledge base of their subject material. In many instances, they spearheaded salutary developments in their respective subject areas that would have evolutionary repercussions. Consequently, with true Omega Mu character, hardly surprising, they each exhibited passion, commitment and, most of all, the desire to instill a love for the life of the mind in varied academic disciplines as faculty members, instructors, university presidents, administrators, and support staff. That is true civic leadership and well-deserved Omega Mu character because “there is no wealth but life.”
In large and small ways, it is a continuing tradition of excellence and service to this day, with many present Omega Mu brothers serving on various college and university boards and committees. For their sustained love, demonstrated commitment, dedication to ideals, and diligent energy in supporting the unique mission and identity of their respective academic institutions and students on a daily basis, we say thank you. Within our tightly-knit Omega Mu brotherhood, we owe our deepest affection and gratitude and admiration for their good work in the field of education. Thank you.
The chief pillar and cardinal virtue for any college or university is the strength and devotion of the teachers, professors, instructors, administration, and support staff. They have a profound influence on so many people in clarifying and shaping the trajectory of life choices and career callings. We are proud of the efforts and accomplishments of the following brothers for the strong presence of their devoted service to the students at the University of Maine and other colleges and universities across the United States. They stayed abreast of the new academic developments, pedagogical techniques, and sustained a strong willingness to expand the knowledge base of their subject material. In many instances, they spearheaded salutary developments in their respective subject areas that would have evolutionary repercussions. Consequently, with true Omega Mu character, hardly surprising, they each exhibited passion, commitment and, most of all, the desire to instill a love for the life of the mind in varied academic disciplines as faculty members, instructors, university presidents, administrators, and support staff. That is true civic leadership and well-deserved Omega Mu character because “there is no wealth but life.”
In large and small ways, it is a continuing tradition of excellence and service to this day, with many present Omega Mu brothers serving on various college and university boards and committees. For their sustained love, demonstrated commitment, dedication to ideals, and diligent energy in supporting the unique mission and identity of their respective academic institutions and students on a daily basis, we say thank you. Within our tightly-knit Omega Mu brotherhood, we owe our deepest affection and gratitude and admiration for their good work in the field of education. Thank you.
Edson F. Hitchings
1875
- Edson F. Hitchings was professor of horticulture at the University of Maine
- Whitman H. Jordan was director of the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station, and he was a professor of Animal Nutrition at Cornell University
- Albert E. Mitchell was one of the founders of the Passaic Collegiate School, Passaic, New Jersey
- Louis C. Southward was professor of medical-legal relations
 Whitman H. Jordan |  Jordan Hall at Cornell University |
George P. Merrill
1879
- Wilbur F. Decker was an instructor in engineering at the University of Minnesota
- George P. Merrill was professor of geology and mineralogy at George Washington University.
- Head Curator from 1917 to 1929 of the Department of Geology of the Natural History Museum of the Smithsonian Institution.
 James M. Bartlett |  Walter Flint |
1880
1882
1883
1884
- James M. Bartlett was chief chemist in the University of Maine Experiment Station.
1882
- Walter Flint was professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Maine.
1883
- Lucius H. Merrill was professor in biological chemistry at the University of Maine.
1884
- Edwin F. Ladd was dean of the school of chemistry and pharmacy North Dakota Agricultural Colleges.
- President of North Dakota State University.
- Served in the United States Senate for twenty years.
Flint- Top Row, second left; Keith- Bottom Row, second right
 Freemont L. Russell |  Howard S. Webb |  Perley Walker |
1885
1887
1897
- Freemont L. Russell was professor in bacteriology and veterinary science at the University of Maine.
1887
- Howard S. Webb was professor in electrical engineering at the University of Maine.
- John W. Hatch was the president of Montpelier Seminary in Montpelier, Vermont.
- Charles L. Phillips was professor of military science and tactics at the Maine State College and Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa.
- Nathaniel E. Wilson taught chemistry at the University of Nevada
- Perley Walker was an instructor in mechanical engineering at the University of Maine.
- Dean of the School of Engineering at the University of Kansas; head of the mid-continent section of the American Society of Mechanical.
- He authored papers on “Properties of Methane Gas”, “Efficiency of Universal Joints”, “Industrial Research in the Mid-Continent Field”
- Author of Management Engineering
1897
- William T. Brastow was an assistant instructor in physics at the University of Maine.
- Allen Rogers was an assistant instructor in chemistry at the University of Maine.
 Mark L. Hersey |  |
1899
1900
1901
- Mark L. Hersey was professor in military science at the University of Maine.
- Fred P. Briggs was an assistant botanist and entomologist in the Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of Maine.
1900
- Frank H. Mitchell was an assistant instructor in chemistry at the University of Maine.
1901
- Garnett Ryland was an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Maine.
- Leroy H. Harvey, professor of biology at Yankton College; professor of biology at Western State Normal College.
- Clifford D. Harvey, professor of surgery at Boston University medical school.
Alpheus C. Lyon 1902
1903
- Alpheus C. Lyon was professor of civil engineering at the University of Maine.
1903
- Henry M. Soper was and assistant in chemistry at the University of Maine.
- Guy A. Thompson was professor of English at the University of Maine.
 William D. Hurd |  Windsor P. Daggett |  Howe W. Hall |
1904
1912
1914
1918
1921
- William D. Hurd was professor of agriculture at the University of Maine.
- Dean of the College of Agriculture at the University of Maine.
- Robert K. Steward taught engineering at the University of Illinois.
- Taught for 25 years at Michigan State University, and he became the head of the Department of Drawing and design
- Henry L. Sweet was an instructor in mathematics at the University of Maine.
- Windsor P. Daggett was professor of public speaking at the University of Maine.
- Clayton Ulrey was an instructor in physics at the University of Maine.
1912
- Victor G. Aubrey was an instructor in animal husbandry at the University of Maine.
- Carl B. Estabrooke was a professor of English at the University of Kyoto.
- Julius E. Kaulfuss was an assistant professor in civil engineering at the University of Maine.
1914
- Howe W. Hall was an assistant professor in animal husbandry at the University of Maine.
- Edward M. Hodgkins was a clinical professor of surgery and lecturer at Tufts Medical School.
- He received the Tufts Medical School Distinguished Service Award.
- Dr. Glover was the chief surgeon at Glover Memorial Hospital in Needham, Massachusetts.
- Bryant L. Hopkins was an instructor in civil engineering at the University of Maine.
1918
- Allen Sherman was an instructor at the University of Maine Law School
1921
- William S. Murray was administrative director of Jackson Memorial Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine
- Raymond C. Wass was president of Lasell College in Newton, Massachusetts, from 1947-1959. He was vice president of the American Association of Junior Colleges, and he was president of the New England Junior College Council. He helped establish the Nursing curriculum with the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. The Wass Science Building was dedicated to him.
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- O. Spurgeon English was one of the leading psychotherapists of the 20th century.
- Head of the Psychiatry Department at Temple University.
 Theodore S. Curtis |  Cecil J. Cutts |
1923
1925
1926
- Theodore S. Curtis served as the faculty manager of athletics at the University of Maine, and he coached many teams.
- Cecil J. Cutts was associate director of student aid and advisor to foreign students at the University of Maine.
1925
- Vaughan B. Everett was instructor in civil engineering at the University of Maine.
1926
- Howard T. Engstrom was an instructor in mathematics at the University of Maine.
- Clarence E. Hart was an instructor in civil engineering at the University of Maine.
 Donnell B. Young |  William L. Irvine |
1933
- Donnell B. Young graduated from Amherst College and then taught at Amherst College and then the College of William and Mary. After serving in the US Army in World War I, Young obtained a PhD in zoology from Columbia University. He was a professor at Dalhousie College, Carleton College, the University of Arizona, the University of Maine, and the George Washington University. He also competed in the 200 and 400 hundred meter races in the 1912 Olympic Games.
- Jonathan E. Adams, Jr. was an associate professor or mathematics at Harrisburg Area Community College
- William L. Irvine was dean at the University of Maine in Portland; acting president of Wheelock College; president of University of Vermont.
 Merrill D. Bartlett |  William A. Oliver |  David M. Rand |
1952
- Merrill D. Bartlett was an associate professor of business at the University of Maine, and he was an assistant Dean of the College of Business Administration at the University of Maine.
- K. Roger Simmons was an associate professor of endocrinology at the University of Vermont.
- George K. Hutchinson was an associate professor of industrial engineering at Texas Technological College.
- Director, Computer Center and associate professor of management at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
- William A. Oliver was associate director of the Continuing Education Department at the University of Maine.
- John B. Edgar, Jr. was associate professor of physical education at Wesleyan University.
- David M. Rand was the Director of the Memorial Union at the University of Maine.
Michael J. McInnis 1968
1970
1972
- Michael J. McInnis was a long serving president of the Maine Football Boosters, and he was a past officer of the University of Maine Alumni Association.
1970
- George P. Dulac was a football coach at Colby College.
1972
- Robert W. Doyle is a professor in the School of Emergency Services at Daytona State College.
- John Zinno serves on the advisory board for the business school at the University of Maine.
 Doug Banks |  Stephen Swan |
1982
Fraternally,
Chip Chapman, ‘82
Perge!
- Doug Banks serves on the Mechanical Engineering Advisory Board at the University of Maine.
- Stephen W. Swan serves on College of Engineering board of advisers at the University of Maine. Steve was awarded the “Black Bear” award in 2016 in recognition of his role on the advisory board and as representative of Texas Instruments, and as an advocate for the University of Maine to industry.
- Joel P. Gardiner serves on the advisory board for the business school at the University of Maine.
- Brett Varnum serves on the Foundation Board for the University of Maine at Presque Isle.
- Tom Beutler served with the NROTC program as a faculty member for about six months in 2017.
Fraternally,
Chip Chapman, ‘82
Perge!
“The wonder is how often events turn on a single personality, or the quality called character.”
This, clearly, we all know: success in any organization coheres around good leadership, and we have had many capable leaders in our fraternal history, and for that we are all thankful. They were and are the consummate fraternal men, and they kept and continue to keep the brotherhood running smoothly, that The Castle is well-maintained, and that our fraternal spirit remains enduringly high and motivated. They embody the old adage that, if you wanted something done, give it to a busy person. Collectively, they each created a lasting legacy of effective fraternal leaderships and caring for the enduring good of the Omega Mu brotherhood and the sustained good of The Castle.
Historically speaking, Beethoven believed that the most important human characteristic, or virtue, was endurance, and this character trait certainly applies to the leaders we have had in our Omega Mu brotherhood. Their collective record is clear: first, they exhibited good sense and fraternal courage in consistently caring about the well-being of their fellow brothers, undergraduate and graduate; second, they oversaw that the architectural grace and dignity of The Castle, inside and outside, was kept in good order, and in doing these necessary things, as they are not an either-or proposition, they showed the life-long good of our Omega Mu fraternal culture. These things count in creating maintaining historic durability and fraternal character.
The leaders mentioned in this blog helped shape our brotherhood at every turn. We know, for fact, that they consistently confronted challenges, assessed risks, and addressed problems during certain periods of our history when the brotherhood was rattled with issues of concern for the house and the brotherhood. Their leaderships styles were wide and varied, but their were all intellectually and fraternally spirited in responding to events, and addressing them, with seriousness, responsibility, and creativity for the sustained good of the brotherhood. They “worked the earth of the heart” of our brotherhood in practical ways for its ultimate good, and they never lost their resilience and determination of heart to lead our brotherhood.
Their unalloyed faith, reliability, and commitment as leaders underscore the importance, indeed the absolute necessity, of honoring them for their “persistence and determination" on behalf of The Castle and our brotherhood. In some cases, they resuscitated the dying heartbeat of the house and brotherhood by coaxing and cheerleading it back to sustained life, thankfully. These brothers had, and continue to have, a strong sense of Omega Mu’s storied historic past and hope for its future. Our 120 year fraternal visionary ideal will not wither and fade, and we will go into our fraternal future vibrant, alive, growing, and without fear. That ideal is handed from generation to generation, and “The future is always beginning now.” But, most of all, we simply wish to say thank you to each of you because “So much that happens, happens in small ways.” Thank you for your devotion and steadying hands at the helm of our historic brotherhood. The bottom line, of course, we owe you a debt of gratitude for your leadership.
Hosea B. Buck (1893): For decades following Hosea Buck’s death in 1937, there used to be a bronze plaque in the foyer of The Castle to inform brothers of Hosea’s unqualified love and constancy of service toward the Omega Mu brotherhood and The Castle. He holds, at an absolute maximum, a central role in our Omega Mu history, and we owe him a considerable debt of gratitude for everything he did for the house and the brotherhood with his committed iron-determination.
He was wonderfully principled, humble, independent, and intellectual throughout his life. In short, he lived as he thought in an uncompromising manner. He understood the meaning and life-long significance of our Omega Mu brotherhood, and he believed that it must be sustained through every honest, sustained deliberate action on our part with our best and wisest handling, generation-to-generation, into our historic future. He truly understood that we are each other’s crosses to bear for life, and that we are to bear the cross of responsibility for The Castle for all future Omega Mu brothers.
Hosea truly understood the spirit in which all civic affairs, fraternal and professional, ought to be conducted, whether they be within Omega Mu, or in the societal or political affairs in the city of Bangor. Orderly, just management was essential. Consequently, in his clear, unhurried, straightforward manner, Hosea put his heart into everything he did throughout his life for Omega Mu and the city of Bangor. He was the embodiment of grace, decorum, and industry. With a superlative degree of commitment and unalloyed gusto, Hosea remained true to our Omega Mu brotherhood, and all of his professional obligations, until his death in 1937, and the Bangor Daily appropriately used a quote by Alexander Pope to describe Brother Hosea Buck: “A soul sincere: In action faithful and in friendship true, who broke no promise, served no selfish end, won the esteem of men, and lost no friend.”
Theodore S. Curtis (1923): Ted was demonstrably reliable in all of his life roles for the University of Maine, Omega Mu, and the state of Maine. The chief characteristic of his nature was that he was high-spirited and steadfast in each area; second; he was impressive in his versatility and professionalism in all areas. He does a little bit of everything and pretty much naturally and happily pours himself out into everything he does. He set a warm and hospitable tone in everything he did for Omega Mu and the University of Maine. His was a legacy of effective administration, professionalism and caring. Ted was the consummate ‘Omega Mu brother.’ He actively understood that all Omega Mu brothers must rise up and participate in support of The Castle. Ted’s always gave much-needed help to the brotherhood and the house, both morally and financially, and he constantly blessed us with his presence in The Castle on a regular in the decades following his graduation in 1923. He served as Omega Mu's Purple Legionnaire for many years, and he was a member of the Board of Chapter Advisors for Omega Mu for many years. There is, to be sure, a long shadow on Omega Mu for everything that Ted did for The Castle and the brotherhood.
Merrill R. Bradford (1939): Pappy graduated from the University of Maine, class of 1939, and was a member of Phi Gamma Delta. He attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 1942. His unstinting hospitality and stewardship toward The Castle was inspirational. He was enthusiastic and pro-active in staying in touch with the undergraduates for decades after he graduated. He lived and honorable and admirable life as a senior partner in the law firm of Eaton, Peabody, Bradford and Veague for 45 years.
Frank W. Danforth, Jr. (1946): Quite simply, Frank Danforth was a writ large within our Omega Mu brotherhood, and as an athlete on University of Maine athletic teams. He was down-to-earth direct and devoted to Omega Mu. He did everything in life with determination, fight, and character. Like many, many of our past and present Omega Mu brothers, he demolished all the societal misconceptions about being a fraternity brother. He was balanced, scholarly, and athletic because he exhibited self-control in everything he did, and he always did everything with genuine dignity of character. He holds the record for the most varsity letters at the University of Maine. He always put his fraternity brothers, his teammates, and his classwork first. He was an eminently decent, kind and generous soul, and he touched the lives of many Omega Mu brothers over seven decades. The delight in his eye when he would walk into The Castle was a sight to see, and the guilty joy he exhibited in seeing every brother was lovingly spirited. He left a legacy of commitment, generosity, and fraternal pureness that will live on in our brotherhood forever, and we will always feel his fraternally purple incandescence at Pig Dinner.
John W. Ballou (1949): John was distinguished Bangor attorney and judge. He was tireless in his support of Omega Mu for decades, providing a model of gentlemanly behavior and infectious humor. He unfailingly open-hearted and generous, and he was always firm but humble in his dealing with the undergraduates. Everything he did for the house and undergraduates was a bold, clear statement about his love for Omega Mu. He understood the real-life meaning of William Blake's assertion: “If you help another man, you must do so in minute particulars.” There was no insensitivity, arrogance, or lack of depth in John in anything he did, fraternally, professionally, and academically. In thought and action, John Ballou was an outstanding student at the University of Maine; consequently, he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. And, above all, being an Omega Mu Fiji was never a murky proposition, and that there should never be an abasement of our most fundamental fraternal assertion: “Not for college days alone.”
Edward H. Keith (1949): Ed Keith, a distinguished Bangor attorney and judge, was a consistent and unflappable source of guidance to Omega Mu. Furthermore, he was a charming magisterial man, sensitive and generous, and he was always the calm and wise voice in the storm. He was a great-hearted brother who always had an equitable disposition to do whatever was good for the house and the brotherhood. He was president of House Corporation for many years and instrumental in recolonizing the house in 1974 after it had been closed.
Dave M. Rand (1958): Dave Rand was, characteristically, modest yet exuberantly proud to be an Omega Mu Fiji. We are deeply indebted to him for all the behind-the-scenes work he did on behalf of Omega Mu by using his poise, talent, and presence as a University of Maine Dean. He was persuasive and masterful in preventing the brotherhood from experiencing any undue, lasting harm. Every impulse and action of Dean Rand was guided by a compassionate spirit for the preserving good of the brotherhood and instilling fraternal and social responsibility. Frankly, he saved us on many occasions during fraternal uncertainty, even peril. He cared about the sustained history of our fraternity, and he genuinely liked the symbiotic effect of fraternal generations getting together during homecoming sand Pig Dinner. Although we cannot absolutely state this, he was probably the longest serving Purple Legionnaire in our fraternal history, and he was coach of the Black Bear football team for six years.
David L. Smith (1961): By word and by example, David Smith has been a dedicated, articulate, and persuasive supporter of all things Omega Mu. He has been in the fraternal bloodstream of Omega Mu for a long time. He is, clearly, without apologetics, a firm believer in the proud historic tradition of Omega Mu, and he fully embraces the belief that fraternal-brotherly life only become effectual when we gather together during Pig Dinner, during homecoming, or with each other in our homes. He is unpretentious, honest, and, above all, friendly. He has regularly attended Piggy and homecoming functions after he graduated in 1961. His support of the chapter and the Castle has been very direct and no nonsense, and he has always been the go - to person to help right the fraternal ship if things got off track. He has served as an exemplary leader and ambassador with the university administration and the national office. He is epitome of "the break glass in case of emergency" type of leader. I also believe that he truly understands the nature of the fraternal institution. He knows that it is a life experience-experiment involving college-age men. Consequently, he knows that orderly fraternal tone and domesticity will not always prevail in The Castle, and that these downturns are teachable moments to the undergraduates. In short, in his straight-forward congenial manner, David always accentuates the positive and responsible and devotional variables of our fraternal life, and that is good teaching, and good always transcends simply the present. That is the great and sustaining good truth of Omega Mu since 1899.
Paul F. McCarron (1963): Paul is a very impressive Omega Mu brother. He is bright-eyed and spirited for all things Omega Mu. He is a brother of affecting personal warmth who generously liked and well-respected. Paul was a very reliable Pig Dinner attendee throughout a period of low attendance, demonstrating to the undergraduates that FIJI is indeed “Not for college days alone.” The guys in the Castle called him “Purple Paul.” After moving back to Maine in 1976, he shared his love of Omega Mu and the Castle with his family by attending homecoming almost every year while his sons who were in middle school and high school. The tradition was the same each year: Friday evening, meet at OJ’s in Bangor with Marshall Stern and his family, the Goff’s, and the Smith’s, then go to The Castle after dinner. Saturday tailgating with the Phi Gams during football games, back to The Castle and then afterparty at Marshall’s house in Bangor. Both of his sons studied at Maine, and David pledged Fiji in 1986, and Dan pledged Delta Upsilon in 1986. Paul still gets together annually with Marty McHale, Tom Smalley, Jim Goff and David Smith for fraternal good cheer and stories.
Robert S. Leatherbee (1976): For many Omega Mu brothers, myself included, we do not know about all the good leaders that we have been blessed to have in the long measure of our 120 year historic history, and one of those admirable leaders that Omega Mu was blessed to have at a crucial time in our history was Robert Leatherbee. He was an excellent House President in the mid 1970’s when the brotherhood was going through a dry and tedious time of re-grounding itself, once again, in our historically sustaining, redemptive, principles to lead it from a period of instability to recovered strength. He understood that good decisions must be grounded on pragmatic and fraternally ethical grounds, and that those decisions must be past-informed and future-directed for the sustained historic good of Omega Mu.
Having read many wonderful things about great leaders in my many years of teaching history, I am struck again and again by the universal, almost common, character traits that make for great leaders, and Rob Leatherbee exhibits many of them. As the House President, and later as the first BCA President, Rob exhibited a quiet steadfast strength, a determined yet calm demeanor, and a thoughtful and deliberate attitude in carrying out everything he did for The Castle and the brotherhood. He embodied, and he still does, what Omega Mu fraternal life entails: responsibility, compassion, and courage.
Jay L. Clement (1982): In breadth of thought, heart, and soul, Jay Clement has been the tireless cheerleader of all things Omega Mu with a singleness of purpose, zeal, and immutability of energy. It is difficult to insert Jay in some narrowly-defined fraternal cubbyhole. However, this is perhaps his most conspicuous fraternal quality: ramrod frankness. He is fearlessly matter-of-fact, and he does not without his love for Omega Mu. In character and spirit, he is our bold and blunt fraternal gadfly of fraternal responsibility, fraternal commitment, and scrupulous concern for the sustained truth of our Omega Mu brotherhood throughout life. He is unfailingly kind and gracious, laughs readily, and is large-hearted toward his Omega Mu brothers. With simple joy and merriment, Jay gets every brother ready for Pig Dinner with his bold, clear, unequivocal email messages and images. He has the poet’s eye and heart for word, symbol, and images to coax, cultivate, and stir our collective fraternal heartstrings to return each April. In short, he demands that we do what we say we are with no decline of enthusiasm and faith because fraternal ambiguity is not an option or a virtue for Jay. In addition, when the cause was urgent, Jay has always been a calm, mediating voice in times of internal fraternal drama and strife, addressing all the pertinent concerns and then repairing the consequences due to the strife with well-considered plans to keep the brotherhood moving in the right direction.
Paul D. Lessard (1974): Paul has been a driving force in ensuring that the history of Omega Mu is displayed before the brotherhood, tangibly, and on a daily basis. The clarity of his thinking and creative ideas has led to the superb creation of our Omega Mu veterans plaque, our Omega Mu and athletes plaque, and the Omega Mu historic designation plaque. Each plaque was designed and executed to completion with thoughtful consideration for every important detail. These plaque, the product of his sustained and determined work, will bless the house well into the future. He has made The Castle, the flagship fraternity at the University of Maine, even more extraordinary. Paul is a brother of great intelligence, commitment, and dignity with a clear-cut way of speaking, seeing things, and leading. As a result, he has a very realistic understanding how the brotherhood should function. He always speaks with a measured, calm, humble confidence about our Omega Mu brotherhood. Paul has a sharp appreciation and historic finesse for the rich detail of how things should be done.
James D. McLean, Jr. (1972) “Very deep is the well of the past.” These words by Thomas Mann concisely sum up the importance of Jim McLean in our historic brotherhood. Jim McLean is influential and inimitable because he is a multi-faceted personality. With composure, dignity, and the spirit and fire of unique expressiveness, Jim has played a key role as an Omega Mu brother. He is ever-optimistic, helpful, ever-encouraging, easy-going, and he brings a moral synergy that unites all of us. He is a friend to every Omega Mu brother, and he is an inspiration to all of us. Without arrogance or bravado, he always shares his thoughts and sentiments to the assembled brotherhood in an uplifting, positive, and grace-filled manner. Quite simply, he believes, as we all do, that being an Omega Mu brother is life-changing and life-enhancing. In addition to be being a proud Omega Mu Fiji, Jim is a nice human being, always. His contributions have included problem solving with University administration when needed in dealing with our infrequent down struggles, building bridges between generations of FIJI’s, mentoring Chapter presidents and focusing the alumni on successor planning to ensure a new generation of graduate leadership. This, then, in a fraternal nutshell, is what Jim McLean believes: we must be unyielding in our attitude in being proud Omega Mu Fijis, and that we must always present, in concise form, what it means to be Fiji, and why it is eminently worthy to become one.
Marshall A. Stern (1964): Tireless mentor to undergraduates in preparation for their careers and post fraternity life, and he was generous with his legal guidance legal to Omega Mu when matters were hard-pressed and urgent. Marshall was driven, intelligent, charming, and generous, and he charged into life. He had an irrepressible smile and charm. Wherever he was, he caught everyone’s ear and eye. He ran for campus mayor as “The Pocket-Size Mayor,” and he won. He unhesitatingly took up the challenge to show his talent, courage, and endurance to become one of best defense attorneys in Bangor. And, indeed, he succeeded. Moreover, Stephen King was a close friend. After his tragic death, former Senate Majority George Mitchell stated: “He was one of the kindest, most generous persons I have ever known.”
Robert W. Doyle (1972): Bob Doyle’s tireless commitment to Pig Dinner attendance was perhaps the most powerful influence in moving it into a 100+ graduate event that continually renews the strength of the Omega Mu brotherhood. Bob’s FIJI contribution has extended beyond Omega Mu to his efforts in supporting Phi Gamma Delta colonization efforts in colleges and universities in Florida. Bob’s sense o humor and writing skills are legendary. He served as a highly regarded professor of criminal justice within the Florida University system, and was honored as the outstanding example of professional law enforcement excellence a few years ago by the Florida Police Officers Association - the first time an academic was thus honored.
Michael W. O’Leary (1970): Mike O’Leary exudes unassailable and enduring Omega Mu integrity. Mike was an amazingly effective Chapter President because he embodied Albert Schweitzer’s assertion about leadership: “Example is not only the most effective form of leadership, it is the only form of leadership.” Mike is characteristically at ease in The Castle, and with the undergraduates, year after year. His emotion and love for the brotherhood and the house was always a clear and present fact. Furthermore, he has instilled throughout the brotherhood an appreciation for the value of the Castle as our home and as a tangible asset. His knowledge of property, business acumen, and vision have strengthened us organizationally, financially, and led to greater appreciation of the Castle’s history. It is not an exaggeration to say that Mike wants every Omega Mu Fiji to understand is that our fraternal history, and The Castle, remain constant and timeless. His desire has been to keep Omega Mu in the foremost rank of fraternities at the University of Maine, and that we all have a fraternal responsibility to sustain that rank.
Michael P. Soloby (1971): Mike radiates decency, grace, and gentle good humor, and he greats every brother with the same smile and warm handshake, and he never conceals his joy in meeting them again. And so it is every time. Mike continues to share with joy, as we all do, his Omega Mu stories still during Pig Dinner and at his cabin. Mike has contributed as an active member of the Housing Corporation, and he has significantly contributed to undergraduates in the area of personal and organizational risk management.
David R. Sposato (1974): Dave bore a considerable burden to be one of the first presidents of Omega Mu after the house closed for a short period in the early 1970’s. There is no scale, no calculus, and no formula for what he did for the brotherhood and The Castle after a short period of doubt and uncertainty. The brotherhood needed stability and steadiness, and David provided it. He simply did it with the close cooperation of the brothers, and that has been the sin qua non of out collective fraternal ethic since our beginning. There were few, if any, errors of judgement on his part when he was the President because he was intelligent and disciplined, and because of that the Omega MU Best Senior award is named after him. He instinctively understood that without discipline and courage, we hazard nothing, and we achieve nothing. Inactivity, a failure to try, and sloth are not Omega Mu virtues; they never have been. David has inherent good character, and he possesses many virtues in proper proportion, and one irrefutable conclusion can be made about David’s timely use of those virtues in his leadership of our Omega Mu brotherhood: it had a long-term salutary effect on the brotherhood because he incarnated fraternal responsibility for the future viability of our brotherhood. His leadership spoke volumes to who we are and what we all value: the historic beautiful symmetry of our beloved Castle and the exceptional life-long fraternal friendships that commenced therein. As Alexander Pope stated it: “Where beams of warm imagination play…”
Eugene D. Cote, III (1981): Buddy Cote is, truly, like a high-mountain stream that is tumbling, clear, vital, honest, and unswerving in its drive and potential and execution. Because of this inner vitality, Buddy is radiant, decent, and profoundly driven to do everything he can for Phi Gamma Delta and our Omega Mu brotherhood. Everything he does is conducted with his distinctive zest, vision, humor, and unbelievable capacity for work for Phi Gamma Delta.
Buddy is notoriously good-natured, and he continues to reflect childhood’s poetic quality in cheerfully embracing each new Phi Gamma Delta and Omega Mu opportunity with a positive spirit. He enfleshes the virtues of calmness, order, kindness, and civility. More importantly, there is nothing narrow, blindered, or complacent in his drive in promoting the positive good of fraternal life.
Buddy has held every conceivable position in Omega Mu and Phi Gamma Delta life: Pledge President, House President, Field Secretary, Board Archon Chairman, two terms as National President North-American Inter-fraternity Conference, and much, much more. His lifelong pursuit has been to affirm the vision, identity, purpose, goals, and creative good of Phi Gamma Delta fraternal life, and he has never turned his back on, or turned from, doing just that throughout his career. To that end, Buddy is a decisive leader and a fraternal traditionalist, and his unfeigned achievement as a leader in Phi Gamma Delta has been an exemplary testimony that fraternal life is satisfactory to the soul throughout life.
Buddy has a powerful, uncanny mind, and a funny, playful spirit. There are very few things that do not delight his eye and heart and make him smile with ease, and his spider-web like conversations show that he is a man at a pitch of pleasure in thinking and talking about everything with his Omega Mu brothers, often spinning skillfully clothed memorable lines into the conversation that are truly timeless in imagery and sensibility to the topics. Truly, fraternal fruit for the soul. He has the gadfly prophetic nature that invites others to enjoy what fraternal life has to offer each day, always. It is his fraternal a priori standard, and it is ours as well.
Thomas C. Hicks (1982): Tom exhibits unembellished joy and passion for Omega Mu. As an undergraduate, Tom was the Historian, House President, and he has been the B.C.A. Secretary since 2012. Tom is generous, good-humored and good-natured, sensible and sensitive, inspiring and down-to-earth. His leadership style can best be described as effusively magnetic, and he is gentle, friendly, large-hearted, vivacious and caring toward all Omega Mu brothers. Tom is a proudly convincing portrait of the loving connection between character, our brotherhood, and our fraternal story. He has an exuberant, magisterial and encouraging presence when he speaks because he is always committed to the very best for Omega Mu. He is big-hearted and assertive, anything but apologetic or demurring, when he speaks to all the brothers during Pig Dinner. Everything Tom has done for the house and the brotherhood stems from the core of his integrity, energy, decency, and professionalism because he believes that our historic brotherhood and The Castle are eminently worth our devoted commitment.
Douglas H. Banks (1982): Being an Omega Mu Fiji is a matter of deep conviction and dedication to an ideal for Doug. During his undergraduate years, Doug was the Philanthropy Chair, and he was involved with Pledge Education. As a graduate brother, Doug has served on the BCA and the Housing Corp for four years. He has been the Purple Legionnaire at the University of Connecticut since 2013, and he is the Connecticut Graduate Chapter President. With his work with the Connecticut chapter, Doug proceeds strongly and purposefully in teaching the undergraduates the sustaining beauty, good, and power of fraternity life, and that they are achieved by choices and commitments they make, as well as the challenges they address and overcome. Further, he attends, not only to the existential choices, but to the devotional-ritual, ethical, aesthetic, and sociological-campus considerations as well. In doing so, Doug is helping these young men build the pillars of their individual and collective as Phi Gamma Delta Fijis. On the national level, Doug has attended Fiji Academy and the Ekkelesia. Two easy words: choice and commitment, and Doug, broadly and powerfully, continues to make them for Omega Mu and Phi Gamma Delta. It is a labor of fraternal love, and that is the preeminent of virtues.
Joel P. Gardiner (1983): Joel has been an organizational and financial thought dynamo for Omega Mu. He focuses his intelligence with laser-like focus and acuity. Further, thought, commitment, and emotion are intertwined and inseparable for everything that Joel does for Omega Mu. He is a person, who, amazingly enough, is unfazed by problems and difficulties that arise because he consistently knows how to execute detailed plans to address them. His leadership to the HC, coordination with chapter undergraduate treasurers, and leadership in fund raising have been quintessentially outstanding to Omega Mu. He knows how to corral all of our different fraternal gifts to achieve success for the collective whole of the brotherhood. With sound critical sense and discernment, his plans are deeply researched and carefully constructed, and he sets the right tempo in execution and keeping everyone abreast of developments. And, indeed, he stands fast and firm in his reliability, and he understands that our brotherhood is changing, evolving, strengthening, and growing with dynamic feeling. With strength of character, reliable integrity, enthusiasm, and unflappable resolve, Joel does everything with unusual thought, absolute confidence, clarity and precision of execution, and unswerving devotion and love for the brotherhood and The Castle.
Stephen G. Perry (1983): Stephen Perry was the Corresponding Secretary of Omega Mu during his undergraduate years, and he is currently the Purple Legionnaire at the Delta Colony at the University of South Carolina. His accomplishments at Omega Mu were manifold, and his influence as a Purple Legionnaire is stabilizing, guiding, and visionary. He sets a standard for these young Fijis by his attitude and example, and that is good character. Through his fraternal example and counsel, Stephen is helping the Fijis at South Carolina to widen their fraternal sensibilities, broaden their sympathies and passions, and hone and develop good judgement in order to live well within the rich complexity of life. As a leader, Stephen is notoriously good-natured, exudes a transparency of good-will toward everyone, and is even-handed in dealing with problems. His signature manner is crisp and cheerful, a gentle soul without one scintilla of jagged, unkind edginess in him.
Stephen succeeds as a leader, on balance, in doing all the right things because there is profound and unshaken unity of human spirit, grace, and cheer in him. He is effortlessly and amusingly personal with everyone. As I wrote in a poem about him, Stephen’s pilgrimage at Omega Mu was an openhearted gift to all of his Omega Mu brothers because he is generous in nature rather than mean, modest rather than vain, and, above all, himself, with no well-rehearsed words or gestures. Stephen is an exceptional Omega Mu brother because he possesses the root-flame of respect and gratitude for the “grace of great things” in living a good and noble life for himself and others.
James S. Fassett (1983): Jimmy Fassett was Vice President and then President of BCA for around four years, and after careful consideration of options and alternatives he developed a turn around plan for Omega Mu five years ago that energized the graduate brotherhood to become more engaged. He believes that fraternal good will and benevolent involvement in our historic brotherhood must be cultivated, and that one concern should dominate and drive our consistent loyalty involvement: the future of our brotherhood and The Castle. Jimmy has a cheerful grace about him, a clear voice, and laughs indulgently. In the end, there is an authentic sense about him in every way. There is no word play, codes, or riddles with Jimmy in emotion, rhetoric, and passion when it comes to our Omega Mu brotherhood. Jimmy exudes high integrity; consequently, he has a common sense, matter-of-fact way of speaking and leading, guided by his fine, clear reasoning powers. Furthermore, and undeniably, his belief that collaborative fraternal engagement was what must be encouraged and inculcated is matter-of-factly-true. And so it is. Everything we do should be for the good of each brother, our meritorious landmark The Castle, and, most importantly, our ongoing historic story at the University of Maine and all future generations of Omega Mu Fijis. Those were the signature coordinates that Jimmy was concerned about, and he incisively asserted as much and decisively led us to improve and sustain that unitary good, now more than ever.
Robert J. McKay, II (1988): Like David Rand, Rob McKay was absolutely dedicated to preservation of Omega Mu. For Rob, as for David Rand, fraternal industry, a desirable virtue, must be developed and practiced, and Rob McKay did so with impeccable integrity, aspiration, and ceaseless effort in giving what he had to give and spending himself on our fraternal behalf. He had the courage to stick his neck out and become a one man HC and BCA for much of the 90s. The scope of his ethical dicta for the house and brotherhood knew no bounds. He put in countless hours of sweat work into the building; he was at the house night and day working on projects. His management of all matters was splendid because he was doggedly determined to keep the university from closing the house in the late 90s. His thoughts and actions on behalf of the house and brotherhood were always commendable because “he simply refused to yield.”
Jonathan B. Smith (1990): Pilgrim exudes an unembellished joy and passion in being our graduate fraternal statesman to Omega Mu. He exemplifies what our brotherhood is about at its best: a supportive, connected brotherhood. His relaxed and reassuring presence has been a steadying example for the undergraduate brothers. His work for the brother and The Castle, vast in scope, defies facile categorization. In short, he does it all. With the undergraduates, Pilgrim emphasizes a sense of purpose and commitment to the rituals and symbolism of Omega Mu life, care of The Castle, as well as the heart and joy of living together. He has served as Purple Legionnaire to Omega Mu, and he has served on the Housing Corporation and the BCA member, but most of all he has been the local face-to-face graduate interface presence with the undergraduate and alumni for decades.
The love these brothers exhibit for the house and our brotherhood is, to quote Kierkegaard: “faithful, constant, patient, long-suffering, humble, indulgent, sincere, contented, vigilant, willing, joyful” These brothers shared a resolute desire, conceptually and realistically, in going a step beyond for the good of the brotherhood and the house. Their willingness, indeed, their fraternal determination, is exemplary. They truly show by their actions the discrete, uplifting truth that the fraternal idea matter.
Our fraternal clock keeps ticking towards 120 years because of the beneficial, transformative leadership work of these brothers in our Omega Mu brotherhood. Sometimes, yes, ones character does change everything for the good of the whole. To these brothers we give our thanks and, most of all, our fraternal respect for the sheer force of their fraternal integrity, decency, and fraternal professionalism in inspiring fraternal confidence, fraternal motivation, and fraternal coherence. They will always remain distinct in our fraternal memory.
Fraternally,
Chip Chapman, ’82
Perge.
I would like to thank Jim McLean, Doug Banks, Jonathan “Pilgrim” Smith, and Joel Gardiner for their assistance with this blog. I appreciate it beyond measure. Thank you.
Historically speaking, Beethoven believed that the most important human characteristic, or virtue, was endurance, and this character trait certainly applies to the leaders we have had in our Omega Mu brotherhood. Their collective record is clear: first, they exhibited good sense and fraternal courage in consistently caring about the well-being of their fellow brothers, undergraduate and graduate; second, they oversaw that the architectural grace and dignity of The Castle, inside and outside, was kept in good order, and in doing these necessary things, as they are not an either-or proposition, they showed the life-long good of our Omega Mu fraternal culture. These things count in creating maintaining historic durability and fraternal character.
The leaders mentioned in this blog helped shape our brotherhood at every turn. We know, for fact, that they consistently confronted challenges, assessed risks, and addressed problems during certain periods of our history when the brotherhood was rattled with issues of concern for the house and the brotherhood. Their leaderships styles were wide and varied, but their were all intellectually and fraternally spirited in responding to events, and addressing them, with seriousness, responsibility, and creativity for the sustained good of the brotherhood. They “worked the earth of the heart” of our brotherhood in practical ways for its ultimate good, and they never lost their resilience and determination of heart to lead our brotherhood.
Their unalloyed faith, reliability, and commitment as leaders underscore the importance, indeed the absolute necessity, of honoring them for their “persistence and determination" on behalf of The Castle and our brotherhood. In some cases, they resuscitated the dying heartbeat of the house and brotherhood by coaxing and cheerleading it back to sustained life, thankfully. These brothers had, and continue to have, a strong sense of Omega Mu’s storied historic past and hope for its future. Our 120 year fraternal visionary ideal will not wither and fade, and we will go into our fraternal future vibrant, alive, growing, and without fear. That ideal is handed from generation to generation, and “The future is always beginning now.” But, most of all, we simply wish to say thank you to each of you because “So much that happens, happens in small ways.” Thank you for your devotion and steadying hands at the helm of our historic brotherhood. The bottom line, of course, we owe you a debt of gratitude for your leadership.
Hosea B. Buck (1893): For decades following Hosea Buck’s death in 1937, there used to be a bronze plaque in the foyer of The Castle to inform brothers of Hosea’s unqualified love and constancy of service toward the Omega Mu brotherhood and The Castle. He holds, at an absolute maximum, a central role in our Omega Mu history, and we owe him a considerable debt of gratitude for everything he did for the house and the brotherhood with his committed iron-determination.
He was wonderfully principled, humble, independent, and intellectual throughout his life. In short, he lived as he thought in an uncompromising manner. He understood the meaning and life-long significance of our Omega Mu brotherhood, and he believed that it must be sustained through every honest, sustained deliberate action on our part with our best and wisest handling, generation-to-generation, into our historic future. He truly understood that we are each other’s crosses to bear for life, and that we are to bear the cross of responsibility for The Castle for all future Omega Mu brothers.
Hosea truly understood the spirit in which all civic affairs, fraternal and professional, ought to be conducted, whether they be within Omega Mu, or in the societal or political affairs in the city of Bangor. Orderly, just management was essential. Consequently, in his clear, unhurried, straightforward manner, Hosea put his heart into everything he did throughout his life for Omega Mu and the city of Bangor. He was the embodiment of grace, decorum, and industry. With a superlative degree of commitment and unalloyed gusto, Hosea remained true to our Omega Mu brotherhood, and all of his professional obligations, until his death in 1937, and the Bangor Daily appropriately used a quote by Alexander Pope to describe Brother Hosea Buck: “A soul sincere: In action faithful and in friendship true, who broke no promise, served no selfish end, won the esteem of men, and lost no friend.”
Theodore S. Curtis (1923): Ted was demonstrably reliable in all of his life roles for the University of Maine, Omega Mu, and the state of Maine. The chief characteristic of his nature was that he was high-spirited and steadfast in each area; second; he was impressive in his versatility and professionalism in all areas. He does a little bit of everything and pretty much naturally and happily pours himself out into everything he does. He set a warm and hospitable tone in everything he did for Omega Mu and the University of Maine. His was a legacy of effective administration, professionalism and caring. Ted was the consummate ‘Omega Mu brother.’ He actively understood that all Omega Mu brothers must rise up and participate in support of The Castle. Ted’s always gave much-needed help to the brotherhood and the house, both morally and financially, and he constantly blessed us with his presence in The Castle on a regular in the decades following his graduation in 1923. He served as Omega Mu's Purple Legionnaire for many years, and he was a member of the Board of Chapter Advisors for Omega Mu for many years. There is, to be sure, a long shadow on Omega Mu for everything that Ted did for The Castle and the brotherhood.
Merrill R. Bradford (1939): Pappy graduated from the University of Maine, class of 1939, and was a member of Phi Gamma Delta. He attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 1942. His unstinting hospitality and stewardship toward The Castle was inspirational. He was enthusiastic and pro-active in staying in touch with the undergraduates for decades after he graduated. He lived and honorable and admirable life as a senior partner in the law firm of Eaton, Peabody, Bradford and Veague for 45 years.
Frank W. Danforth, Jr. (1946): Quite simply, Frank Danforth was a writ large within our Omega Mu brotherhood, and as an athlete on University of Maine athletic teams. He was down-to-earth direct and devoted to Omega Mu. He did everything in life with determination, fight, and character. Like many, many of our past and present Omega Mu brothers, he demolished all the societal misconceptions about being a fraternity brother. He was balanced, scholarly, and athletic because he exhibited self-control in everything he did, and he always did everything with genuine dignity of character. He holds the record for the most varsity letters at the University of Maine. He always put his fraternity brothers, his teammates, and his classwork first. He was an eminently decent, kind and generous soul, and he touched the lives of many Omega Mu brothers over seven decades. The delight in his eye when he would walk into The Castle was a sight to see, and the guilty joy he exhibited in seeing every brother was lovingly spirited. He left a legacy of commitment, generosity, and fraternal pureness that will live on in our brotherhood forever, and we will always feel his fraternally purple incandescence at Pig Dinner.
John W. Ballou (1949): John was distinguished Bangor attorney and judge. He was tireless in his support of Omega Mu for decades, providing a model of gentlemanly behavior and infectious humor. He unfailingly open-hearted and generous, and he was always firm but humble in his dealing with the undergraduates. Everything he did for the house and undergraduates was a bold, clear statement about his love for Omega Mu. He understood the real-life meaning of William Blake's assertion: “If you help another man, you must do so in minute particulars.” There was no insensitivity, arrogance, or lack of depth in John in anything he did, fraternally, professionally, and academically. In thought and action, John Ballou was an outstanding student at the University of Maine; consequently, he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. And, above all, being an Omega Mu Fiji was never a murky proposition, and that there should never be an abasement of our most fundamental fraternal assertion: “Not for college days alone.”
Edward H. Keith (1949): Ed Keith, a distinguished Bangor attorney and judge, was a consistent and unflappable source of guidance to Omega Mu. Furthermore, he was a charming magisterial man, sensitive and generous, and he was always the calm and wise voice in the storm. He was a great-hearted brother who always had an equitable disposition to do whatever was good for the house and the brotherhood. He was president of House Corporation for many years and instrumental in recolonizing the house in 1974 after it had been closed.
Dave M. Rand (1958): Dave Rand was, characteristically, modest yet exuberantly proud to be an Omega Mu Fiji. We are deeply indebted to him for all the behind-the-scenes work he did on behalf of Omega Mu by using his poise, talent, and presence as a University of Maine Dean. He was persuasive and masterful in preventing the brotherhood from experiencing any undue, lasting harm. Every impulse and action of Dean Rand was guided by a compassionate spirit for the preserving good of the brotherhood and instilling fraternal and social responsibility. Frankly, he saved us on many occasions during fraternal uncertainty, even peril. He cared about the sustained history of our fraternity, and he genuinely liked the symbiotic effect of fraternal generations getting together during homecoming sand Pig Dinner. Although we cannot absolutely state this, he was probably the longest serving Purple Legionnaire in our fraternal history, and he was coach of the Black Bear football team for six years.
David L. Smith (1961): By word and by example, David Smith has been a dedicated, articulate, and persuasive supporter of all things Omega Mu. He has been in the fraternal bloodstream of Omega Mu for a long time. He is, clearly, without apologetics, a firm believer in the proud historic tradition of Omega Mu, and he fully embraces the belief that fraternal-brotherly life only become effectual when we gather together during Pig Dinner, during homecoming, or with each other in our homes. He is unpretentious, honest, and, above all, friendly. He has regularly attended Piggy and homecoming functions after he graduated in 1961. His support of the chapter and the Castle has been very direct and no nonsense, and he has always been the go - to person to help right the fraternal ship if things got off track. He has served as an exemplary leader and ambassador with the university administration and the national office. He is epitome of "the break glass in case of emergency" type of leader. I also believe that he truly understands the nature of the fraternal institution. He knows that it is a life experience-experiment involving college-age men. Consequently, he knows that orderly fraternal tone and domesticity will not always prevail in The Castle, and that these downturns are teachable moments to the undergraduates. In short, in his straight-forward congenial manner, David always accentuates the positive and responsible and devotional variables of our fraternal life, and that is good teaching, and good always transcends simply the present. That is the great and sustaining good truth of Omega Mu since 1899.
Paul F. McCarron (1963): Paul is a very impressive Omega Mu brother. He is bright-eyed and spirited for all things Omega Mu. He is a brother of affecting personal warmth who generously liked and well-respected. Paul was a very reliable Pig Dinner attendee throughout a period of low attendance, demonstrating to the undergraduates that FIJI is indeed “Not for college days alone.” The guys in the Castle called him “Purple Paul.” After moving back to Maine in 1976, he shared his love of Omega Mu and the Castle with his family by attending homecoming almost every year while his sons who were in middle school and high school. The tradition was the same each year: Friday evening, meet at OJ’s in Bangor with Marshall Stern and his family, the Goff’s, and the Smith’s, then go to The Castle after dinner. Saturday tailgating with the Phi Gams during football games, back to The Castle and then afterparty at Marshall’s house in Bangor. Both of his sons studied at Maine, and David pledged Fiji in 1986, and Dan pledged Delta Upsilon in 1986. Paul still gets together annually with Marty McHale, Tom Smalley, Jim Goff and David Smith for fraternal good cheer and stories.
Robert S. Leatherbee (1976): For many Omega Mu brothers, myself included, we do not know about all the good leaders that we have been blessed to have in the long measure of our 120 year historic history, and one of those admirable leaders that Omega Mu was blessed to have at a crucial time in our history was Robert Leatherbee. He was an excellent House President in the mid 1970’s when the brotherhood was going through a dry and tedious time of re-grounding itself, once again, in our historically sustaining, redemptive, principles to lead it from a period of instability to recovered strength. He understood that good decisions must be grounded on pragmatic and fraternally ethical grounds, and that those decisions must be past-informed and future-directed for the sustained historic good of Omega Mu.
Having read many wonderful things about great leaders in my many years of teaching history, I am struck again and again by the universal, almost common, character traits that make for great leaders, and Rob Leatherbee exhibits many of them. As the House President, and later as the first BCA President, Rob exhibited a quiet steadfast strength, a determined yet calm demeanor, and a thoughtful and deliberate attitude in carrying out everything he did for The Castle and the brotherhood. He embodied, and he still does, what Omega Mu fraternal life entails: responsibility, compassion, and courage.
Jay L. Clement (1982): In breadth of thought, heart, and soul, Jay Clement has been the tireless cheerleader of all things Omega Mu with a singleness of purpose, zeal, and immutability of energy. It is difficult to insert Jay in some narrowly-defined fraternal cubbyhole. However, this is perhaps his most conspicuous fraternal quality: ramrod frankness. He is fearlessly matter-of-fact, and he does not without his love for Omega Mu. In character and spirit, he is our bold and blunt fraternal gadfly of fraternal responsibility, fraternal commitment, and scrupulous concern for the sustained truth of our Omega Mu brotherhood throughout life. He is unfailingly kind and gracious, laughs readily, and is large-hearted toward his Omega Mu brothers. With simple joy and merriment, Jay gets every brother ready for Pig Dinner with his bold, clear, unequivocal email messages and images. He has the poet’s eye and heart for word, symbol, and images to coax, cultivate, and stir our collective fraternal heartstrings to return each April. In short, he demands that we do what we say we are with no decline of enthusiasm and faith because fraternal ambiguity is not an option or a virtue for Jay. In addition, when the cause was urgent, Jay has always been a calm, mediating voice in times of internal fraternal drama and strife, addressing all the pertinent concerns and then repairing the consequences due to the strife with well-considered plans to keep the brotherhood moving in the right direction.
Paul D. Lessard (1974): Paul has been a driving force in ensuring that the history of Omega Mu is displayed before the brotherhood, tangibly, and on a daily basis. The clarity of his thinking and creative ideas has led to the superb creation of our Omega Mu veterans plaque, our Omega Mu and athletes plaque, and the Omega Mu historic designation plaque. Each plaque was designed and executed to completion with thoughtful consideration for every important detail. These plaque, the product of his sustained and determined work, will bless the house well into the future. He has made The Castle, the flagship fraternity at the University of Maine, even more extraordinary. Paul is a brother of great intelligence, commitment, and dignity with a clear-cut way of speaking, seeing things, and leading. As a result, he has a very realistic understanding how the brotherhood should function. He always speaks with a measured, calm, humble confidence about our Omega Mu brotherhood. Paul has a sharp appreciation and historic finesse for the rich detail of how things should be done.
James D. McLean, Jr. (1972) “Very deep is the well of the past.” These words by Thomas Mann concisely sum up the importance of Jim McLean in our historic brotherhood. Jim McLean is influential and inimitable because he is a multi-faceted personality. With composure, dignity, and the spirit and fire of unique expressiveness, Jim has played a key role as an Omega Mu brother. He is ever-optimistic, helpful, ever-encouraging, easy-going, and he brings a moral synergy that unites all of us. He is a friend to every Omega Mu brother, and he is an inspiration to all of us. Without arrogance or bravado, he always shares his thoughts and sentiments to the assembled brotherhood in an uplifting, positive, and grace-filled manner. Quite simply, he believes, as we all do, that being an Omega Mu brother is life-changing and life-enhancing. In addition to be being a proud Omega Mu Fiji, Jim is a nice human being, always. His contributions have included problem solving with University administration when needed in dealing with our infrequent down struggles, building bridges between generations of FIJI’s, mentoring Chapter presidents and focusing the alumni on successor planning to ensure a new generation of graduate leadership. This, then, in a fraternal nutshell, is what Jim McLean believes: we must be unyielding in our attitude in being proud Omega Mu Fijis, and that we must always present, in concise form, what it means to be Fiji, and why it is eminently worthy to become one.
Marshall A. Stern (1964): Tireless mentor to undergraduates in preparation for their careers and post fraternity life, and he was generous with his legal guidance legal to Omega Mu when matters were hard-pressed and urgent. Marshall was driven, intelligent, charming, and generous, and he charged into life. He had an irrepressible smile and charm. Wherever he was, he caught everyone’s ear and eye. He ran for campus mayor as “The Pocket-Size Mayor,” and he won. He unhesitatingly took up the challenge to show his talent, courage, and endurance to become one of best defense attorneys in Bangor. And, indeed, he succeeded. Moreover, Stephen King was a close friend. After his tragic death, former Senate Majority George Mitchell stated: “He was one of the kindest, most generous persons I have ever known.”
Robert W. Doyle (1972): Bob Doyle’s tireless commitment to Pig Dinner attendance was perhaps the most powerful influence in moving it into a 100+ graduate event that continually renews the strength of the Omega Mu brotherhood. Bob’s FIJI contribution has extended beyond Omega Mu to his efforts in supporting Phi Gamma Delta colonization efforts in colleges and universities in Florida. Bob’s sense o humor and writing skills are legendary. He served as a highly regarded professor of criminal justice within the Florida University system, and was honored as the outstanding example of professional law enforcement excellence a few years ago by the Florida Police Officers Association - the first time an academic was thus honored.
Michael W. O’Leary (1970): Mike O’Leary exudes unassailable and enduring Omega Mu integrity. Mike was an amazingly effective Chapter President because he embodied Albert Schweitzer’s assertion about leadership: “Example is not only the most effective form of leadership, it is the only form of leadership.” Mike is characteristically at ease in The Castle, and with the undergraduates, year after year. His emotion and love for the brotherhood and the house was always a clear and present fact. Furthermore, he has instilled throughout the brotherhood an appreciation for the value of the Castle as our home and as a tangible asset. His knowledge of property, business acumen, and vision have strengthened us organizationally, financially, and led to greater appreciation of the Castle’s history. It is not an exaggeration to say that Mike wants every Omega Mu Fiji to understand is that our fraternal history, and The Castle, remain constant and timeless. His desire has been to keep Omega Mu in the foremost rank of fraternities at the University of Maine, and that we all have a fraternal responsibility to sustain that rank.
Michael P. Soloby (1971): Mike radiates decency, grace, and gentle good humor, and he greats every brother with the same smile and warm handshake, and he never conceals his joy in meeting them again. And so it is every time. Mike continues to share with joy, as we all do, his Omega Mu stories still during Pig Dinner and at his cabin. Mike has contributed as an active member of the Housing Corporation, and he has significantly contributed to undergraduates in the area of personal and organizational risk management.
David R. Sposato (1974): Dave bore a considerable burden to be one of the first presidents of Omega Mu after the house closed for a short period in the early 1970’s. There is no scale, no calculus, and no formula for what he did for the brotherhood and The Castle after a short period of doubt and uncertainty. The brotherhood needed stability and steadiness, and David provided it. He simply did it with the close cooperation of the brothers, and that has been the sin qua non of out collective fraternal ethic since our beginning. There were few, if any, errors of judgement on his part when he was the President because he was intelligent and disciplined, and because of that the Omega MU Best Senior award is named after him. He instinctively understood that without discipline and courage, we hazard nothing, and we achieve nothing. Inactivity, a failure to try, and sloth are not Omega Mu virtues; they never have been. David has inherent good character, and he possesses many virtues in proper proportion, and one irrefutable conclusion can be made about David’s timely use of those virtues in his leadership of our Omega Mu brotherhood: it had a long-term salutary effect on the brotherhood because he incarnated fraternal responsibility for the future viability of our brotherhood. His leadership spoke volumes to who we are and what we all value: the historic beautiful symmetry of our beloved Castle and the exceptional life-long fraternal friendships that commenced therein. As Alexander Pope stated it: “Where beams of warm imagination play…”
Eugene D. Cote, III (1981): Buddy Cote is, truly, like a high-mountain stream that is tumbling, clear, vital, honest, and unswerving in its drive and potential and execution. Because of this inner vitality, Buddy is radiant, decent, and profoundly driven to do everything he can for Phi Gamma Delta and our Omega Mu brotherhood. Everything he does is conducted with his distinctive zest, vision, humor, and unbelievable capacity for work for Phi Gamma Delta.
Buddy is notoriously good-natured, and he continues to reflect childhood’s poetic quality in cheerfully embracing each new Phi Gamma Delta and Omega Mu opportunity with a positive spirit. He enfleshes the virtues of calmness, order, kindness, and civility. More importantly, there is nothing narrow, blindered, or complacent in his drive in promoting the positive good of fraternal life.
Buddy has held every conceivable position in Omega Mu and Phi Gamma Delta life: Pledge President, House President, Field Secretary, Board Archon Chairman, two terms as National President North-American Inter-fraternity Conference, and much, much more. His lifelong pursuit has been to affirm the vision, identity, purpose, goals, and creative good of Phi Gamma Delta fraternal life, and he has never turned his back on, or turned from, doing just that throughout his career. To that end, Buddy is a decisive leader and a fraternal traditionalist, and his unfeigned achievement as a leader in Phi Gamma Delta has been an exemplary testimony that fraternal life is satisfactory to the soul throughout life.
Buddy has a powerful, uncanny mind, and a funny, playful spirit. There are very few things that do not delight his eye and heart and make him smile with ease, and his spider-web like conversations show that he is a man at a pitch of pleasure in thinking and talking about everything with his Omega Mu brothers, often spinning skillfully clothed memorable lines into the conversation that are truly timeless in imagery and sensibility to the topics. Truly, fraternal fruit for the soul. He has the gadfly prophetic nature that invites others to enjoy what fraternal life has to offer each day, always. It is his fraternal a priori standard, and it is ours as well.
Thomas C. Hicks (1982): Tom exhibits unembellished joy and passion for Omega Mu. As an undergraduate, Tom was the Historian, House President, and he has been the B.C.A. Secretary since 2012. Tom is generous, good-humored and good-natured, sensible and sensitive, inspiring and down-to-earth. His leadership style can best be described as effusively magnetic, and he is gentle, friendly, large-hearted, vivacious and caring toward all Omega Mu brothers. Tom is a proudly convincing portrait of the loving connection between character, our brotherhood, and our fraternal story. He has an exuberant, magisterial and encouraging presence when he speaks because he is always committed to the very best for Omega Mu. He is big-hearted and assertive, anything but apologetic or demurring, when he speaks to all the brothers during Pig Dinner. Everything Tom has done for the house and the brotherhood stems from the core of his integrity, energy, decency, and professionalism because he believes that our historic brotherhood and The Castle are eminently worth our devoted commitment.
Douglas H. Banks (1982): Being an Omega Mu Fiji is a matter of deep conviction and dedication to an ideal for Doug. During his undergraduate years, Doug was the Philanthropy Chair, and he was involved with Pledge Education. As a graduate brother, Doug has served on the BCA and the Housing Corp for four years. He has been the Purple Legionnaire at the University of Connecticut since 2013, and he is the Connecticut Graduate Chapter President. With his work with the Connecticut chapter, Doug proceeds strongly and purposefully in teaching the undergraduates the sustaining beauty, good, and power of fraternity life, and that they are achieved by choices and commitments they make, as well as the challenges they address and overcome. Further, he attends, not only to the existential choices, but to the devotional-ritual, ethical, aesthetic, and sociological-campus considerations as well. In doing so, Doug is helping these young men build the pillars of their individual and collective as Phi Gamma Delta Fijis. On the national level, Doug has attended Fiji Academy and the Ekkelesia. Two easy words: choice and commitment, and Doug, broadly and powerfully, continues to make them for Omega Mu and Phi Gamma Delta. It is a labor of fraternal love, and that is the preeminent of virtues.
Joel P. Gardiner (1983): Joel has been an organizational and financial thought dynamo for Omega Mu. He focuses his intelligence with laser-like focus and acuity. Further, thought, commitment, and emotion are intertwined and inseparable for everything that Joel does for Omega Mu. He is a person, who, amazingly enough, is unfazed by problems and difficulties that arise because he consistently knows how to execute detailed plans to address them. His leadership to the HC, coordination with chapter undergraduate treasurers, and leadership in fund raising have been quintessentially outstanding to Omega Mu. He knows how to corral all of our different fraternal gifts to achieve success for the collective whole of the brotherhood. With sound critical sense and discernment, his plans are deeply researched and carefully constructed, and he sets the right tempo in execution and keeping everyone abreast of developments. And, indeed, he stands fast and firm in his reliability, and he understands that our brotherhood is changing, evolving, strengthening, and growing with dynamic feeling. With strength of character, reliable integrity, enthusiasm, and unflappable resolve, Joel does everything with unusual thought, absolute confidence, clarity and precision of execution, and unswerving devotion and love for the brotherhood and The Castle.
Stephen G. Perry (1983): Stephen Perry was the Corresponding Secretary of Omega Mu during his undergraduate years, and he is currently the Purple Legionnaire at the Delta Colony at the University of South Carolina. His accomplishments at Omega Mu were manifold, and his influence as a Purple Legionnaire is stabilizing, guiding, and visionary. He sets a standard for these young Fijis by his attitude and example, and that is good character. Through his fraternal example and counsel, Stephen is helping the Fijis at South Carolina to widen their fraternal sensibilities, broaden their sympathies and passions, and hone and develop good judgement in order to live well within the rich complexity of life. As a leader, Stephen is notoriously good-natured, exudes a transparency of good-will toward everyone, and is even-handed in dealing with problems. His signature manner is crisp and cheerful, a gentle soul without one scintilla of jagged, unkind edginess in him.
Stephen succeeds as a leader, on balance, in doing all the right things because there is profound and unshaken unity of human spirit, grace, and cheer in him. He is effortlessly and amusingly personal with everyone. As I wrote in a poem about him, Stephen’s pilgrimage at Omega Mu was an openhearted gift to all of his Omega Mu brothers because he is generous in nature rather than mean, modest rather than vain, and, above all, himself, with no well-rehearsed words or gestures. Stephen is an exceptional Omega Mu brother because he possesses the root-flame of respect and gratitude for the “grace of great things” in living a good and noble life for himself and others.
James S. Fassett (1983): Jimmy Fassett was Vice President and then President of BCA for around four years, and after careful consideration of options and alternatives he developed a turn around plan for Omega Mu five years ago that energized the graduate brotherhood to become more engaged. He believes that fraternal good will and benevolent involvement in our historic brotherhood must be cultivated, and that one concern should dominate and drive our consistent loyalty involvement: the future of our brotherhood and The Castle. Jimmy has a cheerful grace about him, a clear voice, and laughs indulgently. In the end, there is an authentic sense about him in every way. There is no word play, codes, or riddles with Jimmy in emotion, rhetoric, and passion when it comes to our Omega Mu brotherhood. Jimmy exudes high integrity; consequently, he has a common sense, matter-of-fact way of speaking and leading, guided by his fine, clear reasoning powers. Furthermore, and undeniably, his belief that collaborative fraternal engagement was what must be encouraged and inculcated is matter-of-factly-true. And so it is. Everything we do should be for the good of each brother, our meritorious landmark The Castle, and, most importantly, our ongoing historic story at the University of Maine and all future generations of Omega Mu Fijis. Those were the signature coordinates that Jimmy was concerned about, and he incisively asserted as much and decisively led us to improve and sustain that unitary good, now more than ever.
Robert J. McKay, II (1988): Like David Rand, Rob McKay was absolutely dedicated to preservation of Omega Mu. For Rob, as for David Rand, fraternal industry, a desirable virtue, must be developed and practiced, and Rob McKay did so with impeccable integrity, aspiration, and ceaseless effort in giving what he had to give and spending himself on our fraternal behalf. He had the courage to stick his neck out and become a one man HC and BCA for much of the 90s. The scope of his ethical dicta for the house and brotherhood knew no bounds. He put in countless hours of sweat work into the building; he was at the house night and day working on projects. His management of all matters was splendid because he was doggedly determined to keep the university from closing the house in the late 90s. His thoughts and actions on behalf of the house and brotherhood were always commendable because “he simply refused to yield.”
Jonathan B. Smith (1990): Pilgrim exudes an unembellished joy and passion in being our graduate fraternal statesman to Omega Mu. He exemplifies what our brotherhood is about at its best: a supportive, connected brotherhood. His relaxed and reassuring presence has been a steadying example for the undergraduate brothers. His work for the brother and The Castle, vast in scope, defies facile categorization. In short, he does it all. With the undergraduates, Pilgrim emphasizes a sense of purpose and commitment to the rituals and symbolism of Omega Mu life, care of The Castle, as well as the heart and joy of living together. He has served as Purple Legionnaire to Omega Mu, and he has served on the Housing Corporation and the BCA member, but most of all he has been the local face-to-face graduate interface presence with the undergraduate and alumni for decades.
The love these brothers exhibit for the house and our brotherhood is, to quote Kierkegaard: “faithful, constant, patient, long-suffering, humble, indulgent, sincere, contented, vigilant, willing, joyful” These brothers shared a resolute desire, conceptually and realistically, in going a step beyond for the good of the brotherhood and the house. Their willingness, indeed, their fraternal determination, is exemplary. They truly show by their actions the discrete, uplifting truth that the fraternal idea matter.
Our fraternal clock keeps ticking towards 120 years because of the beneficial, transformative leadership work of these brothers in our Omega Mu brotherhood. Sometimes, yes, ones character does change everything for the good of the whole. To these brothers we give our thanks and, most of all, our fraternal respect for the sheer force of their fraternal integrity, decency, and fraternal professionalism in inspiring fraternal confidence, fraternal motivation, and fraternal coherence. They will always remain distinct in our fraternal memory.
Fraternally,
Chip Chapman, ’82
Perge.
I would like to thank Jim McLean, Doug Banks, Jonathan “Pilgrim” Smith, and Joel Gardiner for their assistance with this blog. I appreciate it beyond measure. Thank you.
Stories, as we all know, are the life of Omega Mu, and they keep alive our Omega Mu spirit each time we see each other, and there is nothing wrong with feeling nostalgic and then saying to yourself: “Did I really say and do these interesting things while living in the house; did all those events occur in the RAM, and did I really look like that during my years in The Castle?” And the beautiful thing is that these events did occur, and you did look like that. The Castle has graced the ground of 79 College Avenue for generations of Omega Mu brothers, and our binding stories were framed within the distinctive walls of The Castle. The stories are delightful, poignant and filled with warm memories. Your stories provide a clear, significant lens in appreciating our long history; second, they provide a broad generational spectrum of our brotherhood and our shared home. That is the power of authentic storytelling, not shallow prattle. Anyway, to be clear, please send me more of your stories. Each story helps each of us to appreciate and love, in new yet familiar ways, our Omega Mu brotherhood and The Castle. Thank you.
Fraternally,
Chip Chapman, ‘82
Perge!
Fraternally,
Chip Chapman, ‘82
Perge!
First Story
1950’s
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“Vietnam revisited:
It’s a long way from the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam in 1965 to the Falmouth Cinema
in 2002, both in distance and in time. Yet the film We Were Soldiers bridged both of those distances for a few Maine men yesterday and as a witness to something extraordinary I am compelled to report on it. I accompanied my old friend to the movie, knowing that as a career soldier he had spent two tours in Vietnam. While he had never talked much about it he loaned me the book on which the movie was based. On the inside back cover he listed many of the men he knew who were in the book and in the battle of the Ia Drang Valley. He told me he gave up listing people after a while.
The movie features Lt. Gen. (then Lt. Colonel) Harold Moore who wrote the book on which the movie is based. In the books prologue he noted; “Many of our countrymen came to hate the war we fought. Those who hated it the most the professionally sensitive were not, in the end, sensitive enough to differentiate between the war and the soldiers who had been ordered to fight it. They hated us as well, and we went to ground in the cross fire, as we had learned in the jungles.” At the end of the movie I exited the theater with my friend, both of us sad and in tears for what we had just seen. My friend wept for the loss of his friends, many of whom he had trained with and had seen off to Vietnam while he went on to Advanced Infantry Officer training at Ft. Benning. I wept for the sadness of it all and for the sense of guilt that these young men died while I stayed home. And in the small corridor outside the theater my friend was approached by another Vietnam vet, and then another, telling where they were and when. None knew the other, but they reached out for each other spontaneously and with a shared understanding of what they had just seen. And in a moment it was over and I watched as one got in his car with the Purple Heart plate on it and drive quietly away.
And as I watched my friend continue to struggle with his emotions I felt some healing begin. It has been a long, long time and these brave men had never had their stories told as young, scared men fighting to live just one more day.”
It’s a long way from the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam in 1965 to the Falmouth Cinema
in 2002, both in distance and in time. Yet the film We Were Soldiers bridged both of those distances for a few Maine men yesterday and as a witness to something extraordinary I am compelled to report on it. I accompanied my old friend to the movie, knowing that as a career soldier he had spent two tours in Vietnam. While he had never talked much about it he loaned me the book on which the movie was based. On the inside back cover he listed many of the men he knew who were in the book and in the battle of the Ia Drang Valley. He told me he gave up listing people after a while.
The movie features Lt. Gen. (then Lt. Colonel) Harold Moore who wrote the book on which the movie is based. In the books prologue he noted; “Many of our countrymen came to hate the war we fought. Those who hated it the most the professionally sensitive were not, in the end, sensitive enough to differentiate between the war and the soldiers who had been ordered to fight it. They hated us as well, and we went to ground in the cross fire, as we had learned in the jungles.” At the end of the movie I exited the theater with my friend, both of us sad and in tears for what we had just seen. My friend wept for the loss of his friends, many of whom he had trained with and had seen off to Vietnam while he went on to Advanced Infantry Officer training at Ft. Benning. I wept for the sadness of it all and for the sense of guilt that these young men died while I stayed home. And in the small corridor outside the theater my friend was approached by another Vietnam vet, and then another, telling where they were and when. None knew the other, but they reached out for each other spontaneously and with a shared understanding of what they had just seen. And in a moment it was over and I watched as one got in his car with the Purple Heart plate on it and drive quietly away.
And as I watched my friend continue to struggle with his emotions I felt some healing begin. It has been a long, long time and these brave men had never had their stories told as young, scared men fighting to live just one more day.”
Second Story
1960’s
 | “We were zobies in the middle of Hell Week ..... Down in the basement .... most of us were scared shitless...... Standing all in a line eating white bread from each others armpits .... Rodger Watson (USMC) was in line with us, fresh out of the military .... Big as a house ....6 ft 5 ...all muscle .......Then the brothers came out with their paddles ..... (that as tradition requires ....we had made for them ) any way.... The paddles being waved ...the screaming unbearable .... and there is Rodger standing up straight and laughing at all of them .................They left him alone that night! Smart move!” |
Third Story
1960’s
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“This year marks the 50th anniversary of many of us becoming pledges at the castle (How many of us really thought we would live this long?)....... a time of love and Hate "1968 remains arguably on of the historic years in modern American history"... North Korea captures the Pueblo, The Tet offensive, highest monthly casualty toll in Vietnam to date (543), RFK enters presidential race, My Lai, MLK marches in Memphis.... MLK dies in Memphis..... Riots in Boston, Chicago, Newark, Kansas City, Washington ..... 46 dead, ....And we were just getting started: Ceiling raised for number of troops in Vietnam .... 541,000 in August, June 5th. California Primary night...Robert F. Kennedy assassinated in San Francisco, The Democratic National convention starring Abbie Hoffman, Nixon nominated.....George Wallace is running for President..... Black Power salute at Olympic Games. (sound familiar) , Apollo 7 launches ..163 revolutions around earth.....Apollo 8 launches .... "first humans around moon' Nixon wins ..... Turn in your draft card .... Unemployment rare drops to 3.3 %. ( War is good for the economy!)......AND Finally!!!! Fiji Pledges introduced to The Purple Jesus.........And lived through it!”
Fourth Story
1970’s
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“How kind of the Lambda Chi's to recall that snowball epic. Fijis did indeed initiate that running battle by attacking Phi Mu, which used to be across College Ave. After being caught off guard, the Phi Mu's needed to vent, so we joined forces to attack ATO - a slaughter, I might add. Some ATO's joined us and we proceeded up College Ave. picking off targets as we went. One memorable moment for me came as we paused to catch our breath across the street from Phi Eta and Jim Chaplin, pitching ace for the Black Bears baseball team was challenged to chuck one of his best at Stoddard Hall, a dorm about 40 yards away. Jimmy packed a ball, wound up, and followed through with a beautiful stride. There was a hushed pause as the crowd watched the building, the only sound the falling snow.”
Fifth Story
1970’s
Winthrop C. Libby University of Maine President 1969-1973 “In those days it was customary for national fraternities' visiting field secretaries to visit with the University President. At the time it was Winthrop C. Libby., and the field Secretary was Barry Mees, a great guy and fresh out of a Canadian university. He had all the positivity and enthusiasm of a new puppy under the Christmas tree. I was utilized as the house "fixer" for campus issues. If something outrageous happened to the brotherhood, he always said, "Find McLean, get him up, put a tie on him and tell him to find the person who can make this go away." Recognizing that Field Secretary / University President in the same room dynamic had all the potential to be a lot like open gas valve / match in the same room, I was delegated by John to escort Barry to the meeting. Libby, a great guy, and about as dry a Mainer as you could find, looked an awful lot like Abe Lincoln with a shave.
When we walked into his office his six foot six or so lanky frame was slouched in one chair with one of his feet up on another chair and his hands were high-steepled in front of his non-smiling mouth. He managed to move just enough to shake hands with Barry, without rising.
Barry was filled with positivity and new-guy enthusiasm.The conversation, to the best of my memory went as follows:
Barry, "Hi President Libby it is a real honor to be visiting the U of Maine and its very historic chapter of Phi Gamma Delta. I am Barry Mees, Field Secretary for Phi Gamma Delta. I am a recent graduate of (I forget which school, but I believe it was the University of Western Ontario). So what do you think of Phi Gamma Delta at U Maine? Barry was as animated and leaning forward as Libby was leaning back and unresponsive in a manner that would do the Sphinx proud.
Libby, (through steepled hands and with no sign of warmth) "Well. Mistah Mees (pregnant pause)....... "That is a COMPLICATED question".......... pregnant pause as Barry leaned forward in positive anticipation)..........."On one hand, Mistah Mees".......... pregnant pause as Barry leans even more forward and Libby slumps even more backward........ as individuals, they ahhh the most TALENTED group of people I have ever seen on this campus…”
When we walked into his office his six foot six or so lanky frame was slouched in one chair with one of his feet up on another chair and his hands were high-steepled in front of his non-smiling mouth. He managed to move just enough to shake hands with Barry, without rising.
Barry was filled with positivity and new-guy enthusiasm.The conversation, to the best of my memory went as follows:
Barry, "Hi President Libby it is a real honor to be visiting the U of Maine and its very historic chapter of Phi Gamma Delta. I am Barry Mees, Field Secretary for Phi Gamma Delta. I am a recent graduate of (I forget which school, but I believe it was the University of Western Ontario). So what do you think of Phi Gamma Delta at U Maine? Barry was as animated and leaning forward as Libby was leaning back and unresponsive in a manner that would do the Sphinx proud.
Libby, (through steepled hands and with no sign of warmth) "Well. Mistah Mees (pregnant pause)....... "That is a COMPLICATED question".......... pregnant pause as Barry leaned forward in positive anticipation)..........."On one hand, Mistah Mees".......... pregnant pause as Barry leans even more forward and Libby slumps even more backward........ as individuals, they ahhh the most TALENTED group of people I have ever seen on this campus…”
Sixth Story
1970’s
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The Great Baker Island Fire
“Getting everyone and everything from the ferry to the shore was quite a feat because there was no pier and everything had to be shuttled from the ferry to the rocky shore of the island via the motor launch on the ferry. It took many trips and I think several folks ended up in the ocean but it was a sunny day and no one died. All the food and all the beer made it too. We spent the day cooking, eating, drinking, exploring, and farting around. We made driftwood fires over which we grilled the steaks, and set the metal tubs filled with seawater, seaweed, clams, lobsters, and
ears of corn in the husks. Tapped kegs and drained them quickly, too. It was an awesome day. I recall lying on my back in the sun with my head in my date’s lap, while she scooped the tamale out of a cooked lobster with her finger and placed it gently in my mouth.
When it came time to go, it was getting to be dusk and we were sun-baked and groggy with food and beer. We managed to reload all of our gear and debris, not drop our dates into the ocean, and get back on the ferry. As we motored back to Bar Harbor and the school buses, it was getting dark. We were motoring west, toward the setting sun, but there was this strange glow in the darkening sky behind us. Our fires were not completely extinguished and had flared up and spread to the woods on the island. We heard over the ferry’s radio that a fire suppression crew was heading out to the island to put out the fire.”
“Getting everyone and everything from the ferry to the shore was quite a feat because there was no pier and everything had to be shuttled from the ferry to the rocky shore of the island via the motor launch on the ferry. It took many trips and I think several folks ended up in the ocean but it was a sunny day and no one died. All the food and all the beer made it too. We spent the day cooking, eating, drinking, exploring, and farting around. We made driftwood fires over which we grilled the steaks, and set the metal tubs filled with seawater, seaweed, clams, lobsters, and
ears of corn in the husks. Tapped kegs and drained them quickly, too. It was an awesome day. I recall lying on my back in the sun with my head in my date’s lap, while she scooped the tamale out of a cooked lobster with her finger and placed it gently in my mouth.
When it came time to go, it was getting to be dusk and we were sun-baked and groggy with food and beer. We managed to reload all of our gear and debris, not drop our dates into the ocean, and get back on the ferry. As we motored back to Bar Harbor and the school buses, it was getting dark. We were motoring west, toward the setting sun, but there was this strange glow in the darkening sky behind us. Our fires were not completely extinguished and had flared up and spread to the woods on the island. We heard over the ferry’s radio that a fire suppression crew was heading out to the island to put out the fire.”
Seventh Story
1980’s
“My pledge brothers, Dennis Mulherin, Steve Swan, Dave Rushton, and I were planning a "bag" of epic proportions in the Spring of 1980. We were going to kidnap the president of the Fraternity, Buddy Cote, and spirit him to a location known only to us. We had informed our pledge brothers of this act in order for them to be prepared for the inevitable fallout from the brothers, once word got out of our success.
We carefully scouted out Buddy's activities for that Friday and decided the place to take him was the Student Union. We positioned ourselves such that when he got to a particular location, we could take him with the least amount of commotion. We were literally about to rush him, when another brother came out of nowhere and they stopped to talk. Chance foiled us.
Seconds later, Dave came rushing upstairs. Peter Berg had just entered the bookstore. Not allowing chance to deny us of a prize, we raced to the entrance of the bookstore and tried mightily to look innocent.
Peter came out of the bookstore and we overwhelmed him in a rush right out of the door to the rear parking lot. I don't think Pete knew what was happening until we starting stuffing him into the rear of Steve's Corolla. He begged us to let him go. He had a field geology prelim test the next day for a critical grade he required. We could have cared less.”
We carefully scouted out Buddy's activities for that Friday and decided the place to take him was the Student Union. We positioned ourselves such that when he got to a particular location, we could take him with the least amount of commotion. We were literally about to rush him, when another brother came out of nowhere and they stopped to talk. Chance foiled us.
Seconds later, Dave came rushing upstairs. Peter Berg had just entered the bookstore. Not allowing chance to deny us of a prize, we raced to the entrance of the bookstore and tried mightily to look innocent.
Peter came out of the bookstore and we overwhelmed him in a rush right out of the door to the rear parking lot. I don't think Pete knew what was happening until we starting stuffing him into the rear of Steve's Corolla. He begged us to let him go. He had a field geology prelim test the next day for a critical grade he required. We could have cared less.”
Eighth Story
1980’s
“In any case, that October the house was going to throw a Halloween party and somehow a few of us got it in our minds that a giant pumpkin would be an appropriate decoration. The pumpkin may have been meant for the foyer table where brothers on ‘door duty’ during a party checked names of invited and paid guests. For big party events, non-Fijis were expected to sign into our guest book that had Mary Ann McCarty as perpetual first signatory as well as some elaborate sketch from our resident artist, Jimmy (‘Boo-Boo’) Faucet.
A few nights before the big Halloween party a group us piled into cars and went up Stillwater Avenue hunting for a pumpkin to bag. I remember Sean ‘Father’ Flathers, Richard ‘Buckwheat’ Banks and Joe ‘Mama’ Colluci were involved but there were a few others for sure. Sean had his pickup truck.
We passed up several candidate pumpkins until eventually we came up to a house on the right-hand side with a long drive way and there under a light on the porch was a pumpkin about three feet high. A couple of us ran up the drive way to grab it while others readied the pickup tailgate. But that plan was not happening so easily - this thing was a monster - and it took everybody to lumber it down the driveway and into the truck. Laughing our asses off we made it back to the house and delivered the pumpkin to Boo-Boo for carving. He did an amazing job getting it ready for the party - especially considering that at the time there was no such thing as a tracing template. We all thought it was great.”
A few nights before the big Halloween party a group us piled into cars and went up Stillwater Avenue hunting for a pumpkin to bag. I remember Sean ‘Father’ Flathers, Richard ‘Buckwheat’ Banks and Joe ‘Mama’ Colluci were involved but there were a few others for sure. Sean had his pickup truck.
We passed up several candidate pumpkins until eventually we came up to a house on the right-hand side with a long drive way and there under a light on the porch was a pumpkin about three feet high. A couple of us ran up the drive way to grab it while others readied the pickup tailgate. But that plan was not happening so easily - this thing was a monster - and it took everybody to lumber it down the driveway and into the truck. Laughing our asses off we made it back to the house and delivered the pumpkin to Boo-Boo for carving. He did an amazing job getting it ready for the party - especially considering that at the time there was no such thing as a tracing template. We all thought it was great.”
I am a person who has always looked for connections, points of historical geometry between ideas or events, personal or academic, in my study of history, theology, art, or English, primarily, because I thoroughly enjoy the cross-pollinating interplay when I do discover interesting points of connection, and that has occurred quite often in my years as a teacher. As it happens, the newspaper article below on Q.T.V. becoming installed as the Omega Mu chapter of Phi Gamma Delta at the University of Maine in 1899, led to several personal and historical connections of interest for me. It was interesting to read that the National President of Phi Gamma Delta, at the time of Q.T.V’s induction, was General Lew Wallace, and I wondered if he was the same General Lew Wallace who commanded the Union army at the Battle of Monocacy Junction in Frederick, Maryland, 1864, and I found out that it was he. By coincidence, I live very close to that battlefield in Frederick, and I walk my dogs across the various battlefield sites on a weekly basis, and I consider how this short battle between General Wallace’s Union troops against Jubal Early’s Confederate division on July 8th - 9th, 1864 saved Washington D.C. from being captured. Although a Union loss on paper, in reality it was unqualified victory for the country.
General Lee ordered General Early to march up the Shenandoah Valley into Maryland and march south and capture Washington, D.C. The Union forces were caught off-guard, but after receiving some verifiable information that Early was closing in from the west and was going to cross the Potomac River at Shepherdstown into Maryland, General Lew Wallace headed west from Baltimore with his troops and arrived in Frederick in time to meet Early’s 15,000 troops. Although outnumbered 3 to 1, Wallace’s troops fought resiliently until they were forced to retreat eastward. However, the battle slowed Early’s advance toward the capital just enough for Grant to send troops back to Washington from Petersburg to defend it from being captured by the Confederate forces. Although Wallace was defeated at the Battle of Monocacy Junction, the short battle has been called the “Battle that Saved Washington”. After the war, Lew Wallace became the National President of Phi Gamma Delta, and he also wrote the book, Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ. He was a proud Fiji.
General Lee ordered General Early to march up the Shenandoah Valley into Maryland and march south and capture Washington, D.C. The Union forces were caught off-guard, but after receiving some verifiable information that Early was closing in from the west and was going to cross the Potomac River at Shepherdstown into Maryland, General Lew Wallace headed west from Baltimore with his troops and arrived in Frederick in time to meet Early’s 15,000 troops. Although outnumbered 3 to 1, Wallace’s troops fought resiliently until they were forced to retreat eastward. However, the battle slowed Early’s advance toward the capital just enough for Grant to send troops back to Washington from Petersburg to defend it from being captured by the Confederate forces. Although Wallace was defeated at the Battle of Monocacy Junction, the short battle has been called the “Battle that Saved Washington”. After the war, Lew Wallace became the National President of Phi Gamma Delta, and he also wrote the book, Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ. He was a proud Fiji.
“Now, Voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and to find.”
Walt Whitman
When the first group of Omega Mu brothers entered the new house on fraternity row in 1899, they entered it with a highly distinctive historical inheritance, and they knew it. It was a source of great pleasure to join Phi Gamma Delta, and though it was a new fraternal endeavor they knew it would be very similar, in fraternal tone and substance, to the life that that had sustained Q.T.V. for twenty-five years. As one Q.T.V. brother positively asserted: “The change is only in name.”
With a conscious and sustained effort, a firm knowledge of the facts and truth of their fraternal history, our Omega Mu brothers entered the twentieth century with the same ambitious goals and objectives of success as in 1874, and with fraternal determination we are now approaching our 120th anniversary in full confidence of continued success for another 120 years. We know who we are and from whence we have come. We remember our past, and we have repeated it quite well, and we intend to continue to remember our successful past as we push successfully forward into the future.
With a conscious and sustained effort, a firm knowledge of the facts and truth of their fraternal history, our Omega Mu brothers entered the twentieth century with the same ambitious goals and objectives of success as in 1874, and with fraternal determination we are now approaching our 120th anniversary in full confidence of continued success for another 120 years. We know who we are and from whence we have come. We remember our past, and we have repeated it quite well, and we intend to continue to remember our successful past as we push successfully forward into the future.
Our first Omega Mu brothers entered the first PGD house ready for new achievements, experiences, and to continue to create a genuine human bond that continues throughout one’s life. The new house had ample space with a dining room, kitchen, a living room and parlor room for brothers simply to hang around, an ample front porch to continue the tradition of just gathering together on any given day the fall or spring, and there an adequate number of rooms for brothers like A. C. Lyon. The new house, like our Castle, was warm and welcoming to all men coming to the University of Maine. The new fraternal identity and the new fraternal home would become the source of life-long stories and smiling memories. “In memory, we find the most complete release from the narrowness of presented time and place…”
When I look at the photo of the brothers sitting on the front steps of the house, I like to imagine what they are talking about, and no doubt it was simple day-to-day stuff: girls, school, tests, the upcoming dance or party, the upcoming athletic games, or talking about Omega Mu things. Maybe they are discussing brother Malcolm C. Hart’s letter that he sent Phi Gam National enquiring as to when he would be receiving his latest copies of the Phi Gamma Delta magazine; second, maybe they are discussing the engineering feat of the completion of the Panama Canal and how brother Oliver Crosby’s company supplied much of the heavy equipment to build the fifty mile canal, and how which President T.R. Roosevelt sat in the chair of one of these machines that made it possible to build the canal; third, maybe the thought of brother Francis Bacon came to mind in 1924 when the case that he designed was used to house the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States in the National Archives Building in Washington D.C., reading and talking about the game summary of Ralph “Froggy” Pond playing for the Boston Red Sox soon after leading Maine State College to a championship only days before, or reading the reviews about Malcolm E. Fassett’s leading role in “The Scandal”, the hit of the theater season, being performed at The 39th Street Theater in New York City. Nice thought.
The looming, world - consuming crisis of World War I was years away, and the brief Spanish-American War was over. However, for the brothers in house, they were deeply sad at the death of Charles C. Scott, who would have been with them in the new house in 1899. To honor him and three other men, the University of Maine administration placed a plaque in Coburn Hall, and, no doubt, our brothers went there often to read it often, to reflect upon and remember and embrace their brother again because our brotherhood is always time-transcending, in our undergraduate and graduate years, in life and in death. The gift and burden of life and those you love and care for through life, and that is our deep fraternal conviction. His death would be the first of many of our brothers who would die in future wars; may their sacrifice never be in vain.
The two and a half decades that the brothers would live in the house were not dry and tedious years of inactivity. Young men continued to seek membership in our brotherhood, and once pledged were duly nicknamed with impishly humors names like Hardpan, Froggy, Doc, Midget, Fish, Wisey, Ding-Dong, Sphinx, Bangor Browser, Brick, Scrapper, Deak, Sister, Humpy, and, yes, Hog and Spike. With fraternal purpose, motivation, and creative imagination they responsibly carried out their day-to-day mundane responsibilities in caring for the house and performing their ceremonial responsibilities, showing character in each and all with our collective heart, hands, and heads. With eagerness, they met all obligations and responsibilities with a mature eye of success, wholeheartedly.
Superlatives filled the campus newspapers and the Prism about the successes of our brothers as scholars and athletes, and their extensive involvement in every club and organization at the University of Maine. They had Sophomore Hops that lasted until the early morning hours. Brothers Pond, ’11; Scales, ’10; Waite, ’11; Robie Mitchell, ’07; were quite successful on their respective University of Maine athletic teams. Other brothers participated in a variety of clubs, committees, and organizations on campus: Ivy Day Committee, Musical Club, Mandolin Club, Glee Club, Banjo Club, Maine Masque, the Military Ball Committee, the Junior Prom, Military Hop Committee, Commencement Ball Committee, the Prism yearbook, and the Campus newspaper. And, not to be overlooked, brother Ballard Keith, ’08, was given a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford University. The list of our successes goes on and on.
To fittingly use Thoreau’s description, these brothers consistently, with lightness and seriousness, intensity and depth, increased the “broad margin” of our Omega Mu fraternal life, in a civically responsible manner, at the University of Maine. By their own words, these brothers always wanted Omega Mu to be “on top.” They never compromised in wanting to be the best. The collective actions of these Omega Mu brothers created a coherent, committed, and vigorous Omega Mu brotherhood. These brothers laid a resilient foundation during an extraordinary phase of our fraternal history, and they consistently used the phrase “nearer to you” in asking the Q.T.V. graduate brothers to stay connected, and they did stay connected to the new, yet the same, brotherhood. Our unswerving focus as graduate brothers remains the same: connection, commitment and compassion. Our spirit refuses to quit, and we continue to strive to do our best in all ways for Omega Mu. Taken altogether, our brothers were doing quite well, and then the tenor of the world changed dramatically in 1914.
But, again, the will-to-power politics led to the start of the human folly of World War I, and it would soon impact many of our Omega Mu brothers. Guided by a sense of patriotic commitment and responsibility, eighteen of our brothers would serve our country and play a significant role in winning the war, and four of them died doing so. They went to war with pure motives, and they each knew the ultimate risk; they each were willing to take the risk. Our Omega Mu brothers embraced it just as they embraced every aspect of fraternity and university life, with passion and commitment, resilience and grit, and we embrace them in our fraternal memory. We are proud of our brothers who served or died in World War I.
By way of closing, the brothers must have been deeply dispirited that four of their own would not be returning from the war to rejoin them in the house. The brothers must have been consoled by the memorializing letter that they received from Willett C. Barrett’s mother after he was killed in action 1918 in stopping the heaviest German attack at Chateau Thierry, near Sergy, on July 27th, 1918, and saving Paris from being captured by German army. She writes:
“He was girdled about by his fraternal friends. There lay before him the promise of a glorious future. Yet from all these friends he turned away and went. And he made the supreme sacrifice. His was an irreproachable character. His conversations, his gestures, his very look was persuasive and irresistible. He was possessed of a splendid voice, which often filled the house with songs of Phi Gamma Delta. He went to war cheerfully , and his letters, written in the trenches, though showing plainly between the lines that he did not expect to return, were cheerful.”
The looming, world - consuming crisis of World War I was years away, and the brief Spanish-American War was over. However, for the brothers in house, they were deeply sad at the death of Charles C. Scott, who would have been with them in the new house in 1899. To honor him and three other men, the University of Maine administration placed a plaque in Coburn Hall, and, no doubt, our brothers went there often to read it often, to reflect upon and remember and embrace their brother again because our brotherhood is always time-transcending, in our undergraduate and graduate years, in life and in death. The gift and burden of life and those you love and care for through life, and that is our deep fraternal conviction. His death would be the first of many of our brothers who would die in future wars; may their sacrifice never be in vain.
The two and a half decades that the brothers would live in the house were not dry and tedious years of inactivity. Young men continued to seek membership in our brotherhood, and once pledged were duly nicknamed with impishly humors names like Hardpan, Froggy, Doc, Midget, Fish, Wisey, Ding-Dong, Sphinx, Bangor Browser, Brick, Scrapper, Deak, Sister, Humpy, and, yes, Hog and Spike. With fraternal purpose, motivation, and creative imagination they responsibly carried out their day-to-day mundane responsibilities in caring for the house and performing their ceremonial responsibilities, showing character in each and all with our collective heart, hands, and heads. With eagerness, they met all obligations and responsibilities with a mature eye of success, wholeheartedly.
Superlatives filled the campus newspapers and the Prism about the successes of our brothers as scholars and athletes, and their extensive involvement in every club and organization at the University of Maine. They had Sophomore Hops that lasted until the early morning hours. Brothers Pond, ’11; Scales, ’10; Waite, ’11; Robie Mitchell, ’07; were quite successful on their respective University of Maine athletic teams. Other brothers participated in a variety of clubs, committees, and organizations on campus: Ivy Day Committee, Musical Club, Mandolin Club, Glee Club, Banjo Club, Maine Masque, the Military Ball Committee, the Junior Prom, Military Hop Committee, Commencement Ball Committee, the Prism yearbook, and the Campus newspaper. And, not to be overlooked, brother Ballard Keith, ’08, was given a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford University. The list of our successes goes on and on.
To fittingly use Thoreau’s description, these brothers consistently, with lightness and seriousness, intensity and depth, increased the “broad margin” of our Omega Mu fraternal life, in a civically responsible manner, at the University of Maine. By their own words, these brothers always wanted Omega Mu to be “on top.” They never compromised in wanting to be the best. The collective actions of these Omega Mu brothers created a coherent, committed, and vigorous Omega Mu brotherhood. These brothers laid a resilient foundation during an extraordinary phase of our fraternal history, and they consistently used the phrase “nearer to you” in asking the Q.T.V. graduate brothers to stay connected, and they did stay connected to the new, yet the same, brotherhood. Our unswerving focus as graduate brothers remains the same: connection, commitment and compassion. Our spirit refuses to quit, and we continue to strive to do our best in all ways for Omega Mu. Taken altogether, our brothers were doing quite well, and then the tenor of the world changed dramatically in 1914.
But, again, the will-to-power politics led to the start of the human folly of World War I, and it would soon impact many of our Omega Mu brothers. Guided by a sense of patriotic commitment and responsibility, eighteen of our brothers would serve our country and play a significant role in winning the war, and four of them died doing so. They went to war with pure motives, and they each knew the ultimate risk; they each were willing to take the risk. Our Omega Mu brothers embraced it just as they embraced every aspect of fraternity and university life, with passion and commitment, resilience and grit, and we embrace them in our fraternal memory. We are proud of our brothers who served or died in World War I.
By way of closing, the brothers must have been deeply dispirited that four of their own would not be returning from the war to rejoin them in the house. The brothers must have been consoled by the memorializing letter that they received from Willett C. Barrett’s mother after he was killed in action 1918 in stopping the heaviest German attack at Chateau Thierry, near Sergy, on July 27th, 1918, and saving Paris from being captured by German army. She writes:
“He was girdled about by his fraternal friends. There lay before him the promise of a glorious future. Yet from all these friends he turned away and went. And he made the supreme sacrifice. His was an irreproachable character. His conversations, his gestures, his very look was persuasive and irresistible. He was possessed of a splendid voice, which often filled the house with songs of Phi Gamma Delta. He went to war cheerfully , and his letters, written in the trenches, though showing plainly between the lines that he did not expect to return, were cheerful.”
Filled the house with songs of Phi Gamma Delta. Mrs. Barrett’s word were a beautiful and touching tribute to her son and his love of Phi Gamma Delta. The brothers must have thought about her words as they considered all of their brothers who had served in World War I as they sat on the front steps of the house or in the living room. For those brothers that they lost they mourned and for those that returned they celebrated, and so it goes. Most importantly, they must have embraced the great grace that it was to call each of them brother. By conscious effort, the Omega Mu brothers moved into the postwar years with the same steadiness of vision, commitment and effort to do well; finding ways to serve and care for the larger university community, but they continued to value what was most important: the brothers within the house.
The brothers simply got back to living a full fraternal-college life with our classic Omega Mu vigor, zest, and stamina, and their actions and behavior seemed to be commensurate with the energizing ethos of the 1920’s with the decisively formative technological, sociological, musical, and economic changes that were occurring. These changes were strongly felt and fervently embraced nation-wide, and with hope, trust and faith they were embraced by our Omega Mu brothers as they approached their twenty-fifth anniversary of existence at the University of Maine in 1924. The growing vision and dream of Omega Mu and the United States loomed large, confident, even triumphant, and on a not so ordinary day in April 1924 that would change for Omega Mu, with consequences that were seemingly dire after the house was destroyed by fire during an early spring blizzard. Fortune, or Fortuna, smiled upon the brothers that snowy day. All that was lost was the house, and no brother were injured or killed, even after many brothers made repeated dashes into the scorching heat and whipping flames to recover cherished Q.T.V. and PGD memorabilia. It was a terrible moment in our fraternal history. Thus again, the undergraduate and graduate brothers faced an interesting challenge. Would there be a new life for Omega Mu? Would good men, wise men, and strong men step forward? Spurred by necessity, those pressing questions were quickly answered, as they had always been answered in the past because we are past oriented and future directed as a brotherhood.
Historically, the Q.T.V.-Omega Mu brotherhood had always confronted exigent challenges with resilient pride from the beginning. First, would our young fraternal brotherhood survive after the founding Q.T.V. seven brothers graduated and moved on into their respective careers? They did. Would their vision of brotherhood, grounded in its key existential object: “Enjoyment, sociability, and the best interest of its member through life” remain? We know what happened, our fraternal story did not end. With calm intention, the next generation of brothers kept the vision and mission of our fraternity alive and well. In the 1880’s, when the Q.T.V. brotherhood was asked if they wished to merge with A.T.O., they had a simple declarative answer for them: No. Would the transition for the Q.T.V. brothers who became Omega Mu Fijis during the 1899-1900 academic year be a smooth transition or filled with unexpected hardship? It was not. Similarly, when a fire destroyed our first chapter house, would we be forced to shut our fraternal doors forever? Would we rebuild and be bigger and better than ever? With historically grounded orneriness, the fire goaded the fierce independence, fraternal pride, and fight in the entire Omega Mu brotherhood to bring new life out of ashes so that there would be no death rattle, no final breath, or no dying-choking gurgle of our Omega Mu brotherhood. There has never been a paralysis in our Omega Mu sense of responsibility and obligation. We never leaving anything to chance with our future; we assume control so that we have future.
Historically, the Q.T.V.-Omega Mu brotherhood had always confronted exigent challenges with resilient pride from the beginning. First, would our young fraternal brotherhood survive after the founding Q.T.V. seven brothers graduated and moved on into their respective careers? They did. Would their vision of brotherhood, grounded in its key existential object: “Enjoyment, sociability, and the best interest of its member through life” remain? We know what happened, our fraternal story did not end. With calm intention, the next generation of brothers kept the vision and mission of our fraternity alive and well. In the 1880’s, when the Q.T.V. brotherhood was asked if they wished to merge with A.T.O., they had a simple declarative answer for them: No. Would the transition for the Q.T.V. brothers who became Omega Mu Fijis during the 1899-1900 academic year be a smooth transition or filled with unexpected hardship? It was not. Similarly, when a fire destroyed our first chapter house, would we be forced to shut our fraternal doors forever? Would we rebuild and be bigger and better than ever? With historically grounded orneriness, the fire goaded the fierce independence, fraternal pride, and fight in the entire Omega Mu brotherhood to bring new life out of ashes so that there would be no death rattle, no final breath, or no dying-choking gurgle of our Omega Mu brotherhood. There has never been a paralysis in our Omega Mu sense of responsibility and obligation. We never leaving anything to chance with our future; we assume control so that we have future.
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“It is said that the flames of adversity will melt the weak, but that it tempers the strong, and that is certainly true for Omega Mu. Eyebrows were raised over this loss, but after a critical evaluation of the how and why questions for the fire, in our muscular Omega Mu manner, we moved beyond the mind-numbing loss of the house and started anew. Within months after the fire that destroyed our first house, after all options and alternatives were thoughtfully considered, it was decided that Omega Mu would embark, once again, and continue our fraternal Odyssean journey down College Avenue toward Orono, daring to dream, envision and innovatively create the elegant architectural grace of The Castle that we all love. Due to connected and committed leadership of Charles W. Mullen, Hosea Buck, George Hamlin, and Joseph Gould, land was purchased and building funds were quickly raised from graduate and undergraduate brothers, and we are forever grateful for their dedicated leadership, ongoing commitment, and outstanding generosity. The legacy of their collaborative vision and generational commitment to give is a legacy we continue to adhere to now: a fraternal embrace for Omega Mu’s future. Within months there was a groundbreaking at 79 College Avenue. Every chapter-passage in our fraternal journey has been one of not standing still and lamenting what has changed or been lost but embracing the new: land, house, fraternal identity. We are adept at creating and recreating with resilient determination to succeed.
 Charles W. Mullen, 1883 |  George H. Hamlin, 1873 |
 Hosea B. Buck |  Joseph F. Gould, 1882 |
The collective determination and vitality of Omega Mu to rise to any occasion to succeed and win is a historically proven certainty, and within a years time the brothers crossed the threshold of The Castle, and orderly fraternal domesticity was re-established, and it continues to this day. Beethoven was correct, a willing endurance to persevere is the most important virtue. Consequently: “By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with…beautiful treasures.”
Ultimately, the important trajectory of our historic fraternal life and history is whether we, the unbroken chain of undergraduate and graduate brothers, will give back in order for the conservancy effort to restore The Castle to its original state when is was built in 1924-1925.
Fraternally,
Chip Chapman, ‘82
Perge!
Ultimately, the important trajectory of our historic fraternal life and history is whether we, the unbroken chain of undergraduate and graduate brothers, will give back in order for the conservancy effort to restore The Castle to its original state when is was built in 1924-1925.
Fraternally,
Chip Chapman, ‘82
Perge!
“Phi Gamma Delta still to thee our hearts will turn eternally.”
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We have a strong commitment to philanthropic and social service activity in Omega Mu, it is not a heritage we think about, or even talk about, and we should. It should receive considered discussion because we have always incarnated a strong fraternal disposition to do good for others throughout our fraternal history. Stewardship is essential to who we are and who we aspire to be as Omega Mu Fijis. It is good fraternal citizenship.
Compassion and care in service to others is worth our time, and a good idea is always a good idea when we speak and act in collective fraternal accord for the good of others, as we have generationally done since our founding. It is the truest gift, possibly, clutched within our fraternal talons, that spans time and space in its far-ranging impact when we give with our energetic Fiji spirit for the well-being of others because it cultivates dreams and goals for a hopeful, meaningful life for all involved. Enough said, as they say. How right it is that Omega Mu has been productively engaged in all the things we have done academically, athletically, socially, and philanthropically without any excessive sense of self-importance.
As a brotherhood, we have done a great deal of community-wide service in Orono and Old Town, state-wide in Maine, and even nation-wide, and, make no mistake, we will continue to do so for the next 120 years, and there is nothing fraternally wrong-headed about committed stewardship. It is an issue of civic decency that has propelled our brotherhood to be fraternally active in social, charitable and benevolent activities since 1899.
Compassion and care in service to others is worth our time, and a good idea is always a good idea when we speak and act in collective fraternal accord for the good of others, as we have generationally done since our founding. It is the truest gift, possibly, clutched within our fraternal talons, that spans time and space in its far-ranging impact when we give with our energetic Fiji spirit for the well-being of others because it cultivates dreams and goals for a hopeful, meaningful life for all involved. Enough said, as they say. How right it is that Omega Mu has been productively engaged in all the things we have done academically, athletically, socially, and philanthropically without any excessive sense of self-importance.
As a brotherhood, we have done a great deal of community-wide service in Orono and Old Town, state-wide in Maine, and even nation-wide, and, make no mistake, we will continue to do so for the next 120 years, and there is nothing fraternally wrong-headed about committed stewardship. It is an issue of civic decency that has propelled our brotherhood to be fraternally active in social, charitable and benevolent activities since 1899.
We have had many brothers who were extraordinarily industrious, hard-working, and attentive to make sure that our various philanthropic endeavors were successful, and one of my most vivid memories is the countless hours that brothers put into making the Fiji 24 Hour Relay Marathon a continual success, and it was fun to participate in it. For all of our historical preeminence, philanthropic service and stewardship has always been part of our proud fraternal heritage as to who we are as Omega Mu Fijis; hence, there is no reason for us to be tame or muted in being humbly proud of our endeavors. It is good stewardship.
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Everything that Omega Mu has done in the area of social service and philanthropy is a worthy complement to everything else that we have accomplished in our 120 years history. Every social service project demands hard-won effort, coordination, imagination, vision, and purpose. Everything we have done is an exceptional affirmation of the genuine good of the Omega Mu brotherhood from the Fiji 24 Hour Relay Marathon to raise money for the American Cancer Society, the annual Thanksgiving Food Drive, feeding the less fortunate in the house on a regular basis, the annual Omega Mu - Pi Phi Christmas for Christmas toys for needy families, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the Fiji Humvee Push to raise money for the USO, the annual Thanksgiving Food Drive to collect food for local ministries, the annual Christmas Party to collect toys for local ministries, and raising money during Movember to raise awareness for men’s health issues. Although we may not know it, we have made a meaningful difference, and we will continue to look for various opportunities to serve the greater good in our local, state, and national community.
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In conclusion, we have always understood that part of our fraternal identity is our responsibility is to give back to the community in which we exist as a brotherhood, and we have always been happy to do so. With genuine care and felicity, it is simply how we do things, and social service will continue to be a significant, elevating, part of Omega Mu life in supporting non-profit organizations at the local, state, and national level. Philanthropy and social service will continue to be something that we will remain proud of as Omega Mu brothers. Kindness, giving back, love, goodwill, and responsibility towards others outlasts everything in life. It creates a positive difference, and we remain committed to doing so. Everything we do, we do with determination and pride because we know that you cannot separate the mind from the body and the heart in pursing excellence in the classroom, on the playing field, or from the Spirit of good to do good. That is singularly impressive, Omega Mu brothers. We have always taken the fraternal path of active social service in doing good for others for 120 years, and we will remain tenacious and principled in serving all three because the concepts of thoroughness and hard work have always carried us boldly since our beginning with a broader sense of fraternal purpose, a staying power that will continue for generations to come.
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Fraternally,
Chip Chapman '82
Perge!
Chip Chapman '82
Perge!
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There are many ways in which to look back on our fraternal history and be proud of our overall presence at the University of Maine because there is nothing comparable to it, collectively or individually. Since our founding 1899, we have developed and sustained a praiseworthy, even commendable, reputation for fraternal integrity, as well as solid academic success. That is a measurable fact. It is clear and obvious, at least to me, that the sum and effect of our fraternal principles encourages a success-oriented academic mindset to be steadfast of purpose to always do thoughtful, thorough work: our durable 120 year song of success.
We are not a static brotherhood, nor we one-dimensional. No, indeed, we are not. The historical percussions of our presence at the university can be seen in the great number of brothers who played on varsity athletic teams at the University of Maine, those who were the editors or co- editors of various campus newspapers, brothers who did things with expansiveness and depth and discipline of character and were Senior Skulls, brothers who exhibited high academic integrity and were inducted into Phi Beta Kappas, and one brother who was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and attended Oxford University. Each of them modeled integrity, loyalty, and commitment. Our QTV-Omega Mu legacy is secure and deserving of humble veneration. Who’s to disagree?
Our 120 year ability to maintain our durable fraternal traditions as well as change and evolve when necessary is going to continue to be an attractive fraternal path for young men to travel on and experience a fulfilling life. Indeed, as more young men experience the rich, historically linked nature of our brotherhood, our legacy at the University of Maine is only going to grow into the foreseeable future because we exhibit brain and heart power in the classroom, in social service, on the athletic fields, and within our brotherhood.
We have just cause to exhibit a collective joy of our historical sense of place at the University of Maine, and much of the joy is due to the carefree gusto and exuberance with which we lived our collective life in the The Castle. It was a remarkable, wonderful life we all lived because it was life-enhancing in every way. With dedicated integrity and integrated wholeness, our fraternal community provided a place in which we could flourish, grow, learn, have a great deal of fun, and be responsible and considerate to the larger good of the brotherhood in taking care of The Castle and each other. We all learned that the deep tap root of this brotherhood revolves around a stable core of fraternal beliefs: the discipline of good manners, for the most part, consideration for fellow brothers, being willing to give of yourself, respect, and kindness to sustain a positive day-in and day-out fraternal experience. They were, to quote the great Princeton basketball coach Pete Carroll, the “Responsibility Quotient” that led to our individual and collective success, and these principles will continue to sustain the rich inter-generational nature of our brotherhood for another 120 years.
Consider, too, it is important to remember, with appreciative hearts and minds, the academic accomplishments of the many our bothers, who, with equal balance of passion and reason, excelled academically. To use Pascal’s “safe wager” argument, which is one of my favorites, these brothers consistently made the wager that academics mattered, that themes and ideas were worth thinking about, that reading and writing mattered, that studying and being prepared for class made sense, that understanding the subtleties of a subject mattered, that the creative principle mattered, that taking risks mattered, that talking, questioning, and asking questions in class were essential, that intellect and voice mattered, and to do so was to embrace the blessing of the present with the hope of a better future, a beneficent chain of thought with life-giving power. The academic journey forward is never easy regardless of the level of discipline, nor is it always predictably successful or straightforward, but many of our brothers accepted the intellectual and emotional wager and won with honesty and authentic “perseverance and determination” beyond the minimum requirement.
Congratulations, Senior Skull Omega Mu brothers, you each exemplify that attitude and character does matter in achieving success in anything that one does in life, and we celebrate your success. The first brother to be inducted was George P. Goodwin in 1907, and the latest was Matthew Ahearn in 2019. And, if that is not enough, we also have brothers who were inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, and we have brother who attended Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship. All these brothers will always have a determinative place of honor in our fraternal history.
We are not a static brotherhood, nor we one-dimensional. No, indeed, we are not. The historical percussions of our presence at the university can be seen in the great number of brothers who played on varsity athletic teams at the University of Maine, those who were the editors or co- editors of various campus newspapers, brothers who did things with expansiveness and depth and discipline of character and were Senior Skulls, brothers who exhibited high academic integrity and were inducted into Phi Beta Kappas, and one brother who was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and attended Oxford University. Each of them modeled integrity, loyalty, and commitment. Our QTV-Omega Mu legacy is secure and deserving of humble veneration. Who’s to disagree?
Our 120 year ability to maintain our durable fraternal traditions as well as change and evolve when necessary is going to continue to be an attractive fraternal path for young men to travel on and experience a fulfilling life. Indeed, as more young men experience the rich, historically linked nature of our brotherhood, our legacy at the University of Maine is only going to grow into the foreseeable future because we exhibit brain and heart power in the classroom, in social service, on the athletic fields, and within our brotherhood.
We have just cause to exhibit a collective joy of our historical sense of place at the University of Maine, and much of the joy is due to the carefree gusto and exuberance with which we lived our collective life in the The Castle. It was a remarkable, wonderful life we all lived because it was life-enhancing in every way. With dedicated integrity and integrated wholeness, our fraternal community provided a place in which we could flourish, grow, learn, have a great deal of fun, and be responsible and considerate to the larger good of the brotherhood in taking care of The Castle and each other. We all learned that the deep tap root of this brotherhood revolves around a stable core of fraternal beliefs: the discipline of good manners, for the most part, consideration for fellow brothers, being willing to give of yourself, respect, and kindness to sustain a positive day-in and day-out fraternal experience. They were, to quote the great Princeton basketball coach Pete Carroll, the “Responsibility Quotient” that led to our individual and collective success, and these principles will continue to sustain the rich inter-generational nature of our brotherhood for another 120 years.
Consider, too, it is important to remember, with appreciative hearts and minds, the academic accomplishments of the many our bothers, who, with equal balance of passion and reason, excelled academically. To use Pascal’s “safe wager” argument, which is one of my favorites, these brothers consistently made the wager that academics mattered, that themes and ideas were worth thinking about, that reading and writing mattered, that studying and being prepared for class made sense, that understanding the subtleties of a subject mattered, that the creative principle mattered, that taking risks mattered, that talking, questioning, and asking questions in class were essential, that intellect and voice mattered, and to do so was to embrace the blessing of the present with the hope of a better future, a beneficent chain of thought with life-giving power. The academic journey forward is never easy regardless of the level of discipline, nor is it always predictably successful or straightforward, but many of our brothers accepted the intellectual and emotional wager and won with honesty and authentic “perseverance and determination” beyond the minimum requirement.
Congratulations, Senior Skull Omega Mu brothers, you each exemplify that attitude and character does matter in achieving success in anything that one does in life, and we celebrate your success. The first brother to be inducted was George P. Goodwin in 1907, and the latest was Matthew Ahearn in 2019. And, if that is not enough, we also have brothers who were inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, and we have brother who attended Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship. All these brothers will always have a determinative place of honor in our fraternal history.
Omega Mu Senior Skulls
“The society promotes the values of friendship, obligation, academics, dignity, and the standards and traditions of the University of Maine”
- George P. Goodwin, 1907
- Guy E. Hayward, 1908
- Raymond Fellows, 1908
- Arthur S. Hanscom, 1909
- Howard L. Farwell, 1909
- Elton L. Towel, 1909
- Malcom E. Fassett, 1910
- Charles E. Stickney, 1910
- William R. Ballou, 1912
- Warren McDonald, 1913
- Clifton E. Chandler, 1913
- Arthur W. Abbott, 1915
- Phillip W. Thomas, 1915
- Robert E. Thurrell, 1916
- Hugo S. Cross, 1919
- Winslow K. Herrick, 1922
- Edward S. Lawrence, 1924
- Philip H. Taylor, 1924
- Joseph M. Murray, 1926
- Henry B. Eaton, II, 1927
- Fred C. Newell, 1927
- Byron B. Porter, 1928
- John W. Moran, 1930
- Robert V. Cullinan, 1939
- William L. Irvine, 1942
- Alfred Hutchinson, 1944
- Robert W. Nutter, 1944
- James F. Donovan, 1945
- Winslow A. Work, 1945
- Roger F. Thurrell, 1948
- John Ballou, 1949
- Philip A. Coulombe, 1950
- Thomas W. Golden, 1955
- Maurice L. Hickey, 1956
- Eben B. DeGrasse, 1957
- Vernon L. Moulton, 1958
- Donald E. Cookson, 1959
- Norman W. Stevenson, 1960
- Joseph Tardif, 1962
- James H. Goff, 1963
- John R. Roberts, 1963
- Lowell T. Sherwood, Jr., 1964
- Terry L. Chadbourne, 1965
- Raymond W. O’Keefe, 1969
- John L. Collins, 1970
- George Paul Dulac, 1970
- James D. McLean, Jr., 1972
- James F. Kane, III, 1976
- Robert B. Rand, 1976
- Jonathan T. Oakes, 1977
- Paul E. Violette, 1977
- Raymond A. Konisky, 1978
- Stephen G. Perry, 1983
- Sean Flathers, 1984
- Thomas E. Babineau, 1986
- Don Marden, 1986
- Scott Wallace, 1986
- Jeffrey G. Stewart, 1986
- Thomas C Cole, 1990
- Stephen D. Sumner, 1998
- Thomas Beutler, 2017
- Matthew Ahearn, 2019
Phi Beta Kappa
"Love of learning is the guide of life”
- Whitman H. Jordan, 1875, Charter member of Phi Beta Kappa chapter when it was established at the University of Maine in 1923
- James N. Hart, 1885, Charter member of Phi Beta Kappa chapter when it was established at the University of Maine in 1923
- Fred C. Mitchell, 1900, Charter member of the Phi Beta Kappa chapter when it was established at the University of Maine in 1923
- Robie L. Mitchell, 1907, Charter member of the Phi Beta Kappa chapter when it was established at the University of Maine in 1923
- Edward R. Hale, 1926
- Edward W. Hackett, 1953
- Lawrence T. Ronco, 1957
- Eugene Toothaker, 1957
- Thomas M. Acheson, 1962
- Albert J. Ross, 1963
- Alan G. Sawyer, 1965
- Charles S. Bernstein, 1977
- Brian L. Datson, 1978
- R. Scott Sawyer, 1979
- Christopher D. Larson, 1981
- Thomas C. Hazzard, 1983
- Timothy B. Adams, 1999
Rhodes Scholar
“Rhodes Scholars are chosen not only for their outstanding scholarly achievements, but for their character, commitment to others and to the common good, and for their potential for leadership in whatever domains their careers may lead. The first U.S. Rhodes Scholars entered Oxford in 1904.”
In closing, whether our brothers had short hair or shoulder-length hair, wearing shirts with detachable collars or bell-bottom jeans, smoking pipes and wearing tweed jackets or Wings cigarettes and wearing their World War II military uniforms, playing cards in the living room or opposite hand on the front lawn, listening to the music in the house of George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Tommy Dorsey, John Coltrane, The Everly Brothers, B.B. King, Frank Sinatra, the music of the British Invasion, Motown, or the psychedelic sound coming out of San Francisco, let us always remember that we have always maintained a united fraternal personality, generation-to-generation, and that only happens because everything we are as a brotherhood coheres around fraternal friendship, mutual respect, and commitment. Then, as now, those three qualities make us one of the best, if not the best, fraternity at the University of Maine; second, we always strive to maintain our fraternal integrity by maintaining the simple yet timeless linked grace of all three of these qualities, and that is the true-to-life reflection of the reality of Omega Mu fraternity life. We are men of goodwill, cordial warmth, and determined drive in word, as well as in rigorous, accomplished deeds in all areas. This is the historic perseverance of our fraternal character since 1899 because we do everything with energy, integrity, and enthusiasm. We are not imitators, and we never will be.
Let us always remember that we have an incalculable historical personality, generation-to-generation, and that only happens because everything we are as a brotherhood coheres around fraternal friendship, mutual respect, and commitment. Those three qualities make us one of the best fraternities at the University of Maine, if not the best; second, we always strive to maintain our fraternal integrity by maintaining the simple yet timeless linked grace of all three of these qualities for the past 120 years: men of goodwill, cordial warmth, and determined drive.
Fraternally,
Chip Chapman, ’82
Perge!
Let us always remember that we have an incalculable historical personality, generation-to-generation, and that only happens because everything we are as a brotherhood coheres around fraternal friendship, mutual respect, and commitment. Those three qualities make us one of the best fraternities at the University of Maine, if not the best; second, we always strive to maintain our fraternal integrity by maintaining the simple yet timeless linked grace of all three of these qualities for the past 120 years: men of goodwill, cordial warmth, and determined drive.
Fraternally,
Chip Chapman, ’82
Perge!
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