​National Academy of Sciences

Our brothers’ careers have been productive, constructive, spirited, and prosaic. They displayed impressive skills, talents, and abilities They were, and we continue to be, a beautiful and lively expression of our enduring fraternal beliefs, and that underlying harmony is far-reaching in expectation for all brothers’, undergraduate and graduate. It is the core of what our fraternal founders asserted in 1848 and 1874 and 1899: to live active, commendable, and responsible lives, and to build up community. Clearly and compellingly, they added, and continue to add, positive value at the local, state, national, global, and fraternal level because they engaged life fully and responsibly. In short, they were authoritative pillars throughout life. They were-are exemplary in their citizenship, character, and their sense of dutiful responsibility, and, in many instances, they were leading voices in their career fields. They prove that success of any kind does not occur by luck or accident, and we remember them because they continue to provide that message for our time. We have long been, from one generation to the next, proud to be Omega Mu Fijis. We continue to cherish our fraternal friendships, our shared memories, and our evolving, forward-focused history at the University of Maine. These things, above and beyond everything else, are the underlying rooted connections that make us proud to be Omega Mu Fijis. Why, after all, should we believe otherwise? We have been doing it well since 1874, and we will continue to do so.
Perge!

​Beyond his wide-ranging achievements in the classroom, professor Hamlin played a prominent role in helping coordinate, plan, and build three buildings on the Maine State College campus that were designed by fellow Q. T. V. - Phi Gamma Delta brother, Frank E. Kidder, 1877: Coburn Hall, Wingate Hall, and Holmes Hall.

While helping with the construction of Coburn Hall, Holmes Hall, and Wingate Hall, professor Hamlin also designed plans to bring water to the campus from the Stillwater River. To accomplish this, he designed and built a pump house next to the Stillwater River, directly in front of the Beta house, and an underground line connected to a standpipe near the present day site of the Cyrus Pavilion Theater, Rogers Hall, or the Observatory. Coincidentally, the pump house was also where Bananas, the black bear mascot, was housed.

​The standpipe, interestingly enough, became a battleground tradition between the freshmen and sophomores classes for decades. Each class would paint their class number on the tank and paint over the other class number, typically late at night, and guard it as long as possible from being defaced by the other class. 

​An unfortunate tradition was that the freshmen class was always forced to line up after their adventure up the standpipe and went through a gauntlet of paddles for successfully erasing the sophomore number and painting their own. However, the tradition changed when the university joined the Orono Water Works and the sophomores painted a large “M” on the larger standpipe as a compromise to end the class rivalry of continual defacing and repainting of numerals.

​The view looking toward the site where our ‘Castle’ would be built on land given to the brotherhood by brother Hosea Buck. Mount Vernon House, first on the right, was our last Q. T. V. Chapter House. It was remodeled and became Mount Vernon House, a women's dorm, and it was  destroyed by a fire in the early 1930’s. The second building was our first Phi Gamma Delta House, which was destroyed by a fire in 1924. 

After brother Hosea Buck, 1893, donated the land upon which our ‘Castle’ sits, professor Hamlin gave generously of his time to survey the land, and he was a supervising presence during the entire construction period from 1924-1925. Not surprisingly, he inspected the progress for every detail and consideration, inside and outside the house, through the entire construction process. He attended to every practical and aesthetic concern to assure that it would be the most elegant fraternal house on campus. We are fortunate that he remained fraternally resolute and attended to all these essential concerns in order to help create the most beautiful fraternal home at the University of Maine.

Indeed, far and wide, in scope and ambition, George Hamlin was conscientious and intensely loyal in his service within the University of Maine community and our Phi Gamma Delta brotherhood. He was the first librarian at Maine State College, a professor of mathematics, surveying, civil engineering, as well as the treasurer of the college. Clearly, he was a preeminent figure in the history of the University of Maine. Truly, his legacy at Maine is imperishable, as is his equally great fraternal legacy. His passion, care, and involvement in the life of Phi Gamma Delta was equally energizing in industry and life-long commitment. In fact, it was unbreakable. He was always concerned about the structural integrity and beauty of the house and the well-being of the brotherhood. He was an advocate and champion for our fraternal life, and without any confusion in heart, mind, and spirit, he remained a life-giving fraternal presence in our Phi Gamma Delta brotherhood. He was an all-round Q.T.V.-Omega Mu man from 1873-1951.
 
George H. Hamlin understood and believed in ideals and concrete reality, without ever yielding, and he always worked hard for the good in blending both to achieve a greater sustaining good as an educator, a Phi Gamma Delta brother, and a family man. He lived truly lived Jefferson’s generative, all-encompassing visionary statement about dreamers: …Dreamers of all past and future times….” In a word, persistence and determination through life is important for the future, a sustaining inheritance since 1848. 

Omega Mu brothers in this picture: Frederick G. Quincy, John Reed, John W. Hatch,
​George P. Gould, John S. Williams, George H. Hamlin, Calvin H. Nealley, Mellen E. Farrington, and James N. Hart. ​

​Fraternally,
Chip Chapman, ’82
Perge

Our brothers’ careers have been productive, constructive, spirited, and prosaic. They displayed impressive skills, talents, and abilities They were, and we continue to be, a beautiful and lively expression of our enduring fraternal beliefs, and that underlying harmony is far-reaching in expectation for all brothers’, undergraduate and graduate. It is the core of what our fraternal founders asserted in 1848 and 1874 and 1899: to live active, commendable, and responsible lives, and to build up community. Clearly and compellingly, they added, and continue to add, positive value at the local, state, national, global, and fraternal level because they engaged life fully and responsibly. In short, they were authoritative pillars throughout life. They were-are exemplary in their citizenship, character, and their sense of dutiful responsibility, and, in many instances, they were leading voices in their career fields. They prove that success of any kind does not occur by luck or accident, and we remember them because they continue to provide that message for our time. We have long been, from one generation to the next, proud to be Omega Mu Fijis. We continue to cherish our fraternal friendships, our shared memories, and our evolving, forward-focused history at the University of Maine. These things, above and beyond everything else, are the underlying rooted connections that make us proud to be Omega Mu Fijis. Why, after all, should we believe otherwise? We have been doing it well since 1874, and we will continue to do so. Perge!

​Carroll’s warm, reflective valedictorian address was a simple, eloquent exhortation to the graduating class to remember their collective journey at the University of Maine. In many ways it was an unoriginal valedictory address, but it was the kind of message that is always pleasant to hear because his references and imagery were emotionally celebratory. He spoke of things that resonated in their still-active present collective memory: pleasure, enjoyment, friendships, and the life of the mind in studying, and that many of these memories will not persist in our memory but only diminish with time. That is a sad but real truth. Simultaneously, Carroll exhorted each graduating senior to ‘Persevere in all things’, and that is a timeless, uncompromising truth that does not diminish with time, age, or career calling that each senior would soon transition to around the country, applying their competence and skill to make an effective difference. And, after al, it was fitting that Carroll S. Chaplin, our Omega Mu brother, would choose to include persevere in his address. And, in truth, he probably was thinking of Coolidge’s admonition, which we all say regularly as Fijis: “Perseverance and determination are omnipotent.”
 
Undoubtedly, Carroll knew our storied fraternal past at the university, and he was proud of it. Persevere is a distinctive word, a commanding word, our rallying fraternal word, our collective doctrinal attitude as undergraduate and graduate brothers, our expressive word we love to say, and our grounding historic principle that we remain champions of in being fraternally committed and upbeat in all matters as Omega Mu Fiji brothers.
 
Carroll dovetailed persevere, with a proper perspective of the word, in how one lives and works in the world to make a difference as they each commence on their ‘little narrow foot paths’ to live in the world with ‘care and responsibility’. Care and responsibility, two words that really count in making a difference in allowing good ideals and good visions to become effectively real for the good of humanity. Carroll wanted the seniors to sustain the fond memories of their university years, but he wanted every graduating senior to persevere, to care, and to be responsible in their distinct career callings, their families, their friends, their university, and their faith as they each started their unique journey on the ‘narrow path’ Each word is a faithful word commanding in both word and action, and doing them, as Carrol so beautifully stated, ‘shall be the crowning of a ‘well-spent lives’ - ‘fruitage’. That is well-stated and can never be over-stated.

Carroll S. Chaplin was a sharp young man, and his ‘narrow foot path’ led to a dedicated life as a lawyer, judge, and mayor in Portland, Maine. In the 1923 mayoral election in Portland, Carroll was aggressively opposed by the KKK. By the mid 1920’s, the Klan politically controlled seven states, and it was gaining organizational unity and strength in many Maine cities: Rockland, Saco, Hallowell, and Portland. Of course, Carroll opposed Klan ideology in its entirety: racial, religious, and political, and he openly expressed his criticism and condemnation of their intolerant beliefs, and he subsequently lost the election. He was the last mayor of Portland until 1991. Our fraternal history is richer because of the durable, persistent grace of character that guided Carroll S. Chaplin throughout his career. He truly understood and lived the virtues of responsibility and care. 

In all that we do now, we continue to hammer home the virtue of our historic identity and how the sustaining, practical grace of a caring, persevering attitude is the sole reason for our historic pride at the University of Maine for the past 146 years. May we continue to ‘persevere in all things’ and not break the chain of our brotherhood as we continue on our historic path.
 
The conclusion of the 1904 graduation was the singing of the class ode, in tune with the University Hymn, a hymn that was written by our fraternal brother, Horace M. Estabrooke. In  conception, it is a mild, tender and comforting ode encouraging historic memory, love, and loyalty to beloved friends and the University of Maine. That belief mirrors our deep-rooted, generationally interlinked, fraternal belief as Omega Mu Fijis that we promote and foster from being Zobies to graduate brothers. Expressed or not, we believe, and have always believed, in simple perseverance, and to compromise on that is historically unthinkable! Perge!

Fraternally,
Chip Chapman, ’82
Perge!