Bumps Room and the Thurrell Room

It is always with grateful awareness that we all recognize and appreciate our fraternal impact on the history of the University of Maine since its founding. It is unquestionably remarkable, and we are all aware that there are many building, memorials, and rooms that are associated with, or directly named in honor of, our fraternal brothers at the University of Maine. The list is a significant, and they are as follows: Balentine Hall, Estabrooke Hall,  Crosby Hall, and Cloke Plaza. Moreover, many other building were designed and built by one our fraternal brother's, Frank E. Kidder. In addition, for a quarter of a century, with incredible skill, detail, and attentiveness, a few of our fraternal brothers, who were professors at the University of Maine, unselfishly oversaw the construction of many other buildings that grace the campus grounds. So, too, when the Memorial Union opened in 1952, two rooms in the building were named in honor of two of our brothers: Wilbur A Bumps and Robert F. Thurrell. To say that our fraternal brotherhood has made a significant contribution to the life of the University of Maine, throughout our fraternal history, is an understatement. In many ways, we helped build the foundation of the University of the Maine in many ways: architecturally, athletically, and academically. To be sure, it is historically solid. Consequently, when you walk on the campus grounds our ancestral fraternal presence breathes, almost, everywhere, and the university is richer because of our fraternal presence since 1874. It is great to see, know, feel, and celebrate our enduring, long-rooted fraternal connection at the University of Maine. It is an enduring narrative that has been meaningful and satisfying to generations of men. After all, we are the oldest fraternal brotherhood at the University of Maine. 

We fraternally thrive and endure to this day because we have not been a brotherhood that believes in half-measures, half-commitments, or half-efforts, in anything since our Q. T. V. founding, and that  fraternal commitment and industry, in all matters, will never waiver. Distilled into two simple principles, we have always believed and lived by the two fraternity-defining Phi Gamma Delta principles: persistence and determination. These two words, abidingly and faithfully, portray who we have been as a brotherhood at the University of Maine since 1874. We are proud Omega Mu Fijis, and though we always give a thankful collective nod to our past history at Maine, we always have our eye, calm and composed, focused on our fraternal future because there is no other fraternal brotherhood that is comparable to us at the University of Maine. And, I dare say, we all know this, and we continue to be optimistic as ever as we envision our rich, growing fraternal history at 79 College Avenue!  Clearly, the impressive breadth of our fraternal history makes us proud Phi Gamma Delta Fijis, always! That is it. Perge

Wilbur A. Bumps, 1875; Robert F. Thurrell, 1915

The Memorial Union

Dr. Wilbur A. Bumps

Bumps Room

Robert F. Thurrell

“What if the space be long and wide,
That parts us from our brother’s side
A soul-joined chain unites our band,
And memory links us hand in hand.”
(Phi Gamma Delta fraternity song)

Fraternally,
Chip Chapman, ’82
Perge