Carroll S. Chaplin, 1904

6/28/2020

“Furthering through perseverance”

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. Chaplin, 1904
University of Maine
Valedictorian

Carroll S. Chaplin

Carroll S. Chapman, seated, far left

Carroll S. Chaplin, first row, second from the right

“History, as nearly no one seems to know, is not merely something to be read. And it does not refer merely, or even principally, to the past. On the contrary, the great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do. It could scarcely be otherwise, since it is to history that we owe our frames of reference, our identities, and our aspirations.”

There are many witty, hilarious, and irreverent stories about our fraternal life in the Castle that we vividly recall when we come together for Pig Dinner; it is almost fraternal law to do so. The honing skill and humor, year-to-year, in telling each of them never grows old. The emotional rhythm and tempo in telling them is upbeat, and what an extraordinary collection of generational stories we have from the RAM, the football field, bagging brothers, the dining room, Fiji Island, mud bowl, cherished traditions, and the undergraduates continue to create them, and the story collection will grow ever-larger for many generations to come. These stories are irreplaceable in our fraternal history, and each story generates smiles of proud remembrance and gratitude, as they should. That is not mere sentimentality; they mean a lot to us because they speak positively of sincere friendship, brotherhood and fellowship. They speak to the joy and fun of what makes fraternity life so memorable. Candidly, that is brotherhood, a lifelong gift, for which we are all proud of, always. In the end, with only a few unfortunate periods in our fraternal history when we fell woefully short because we did not have high fraternal standards, generations of Omega Mu brothers have created the right fraternal culture that is positive and uplifting rather than degrading and destructive. Living cooperatively and responsibly together, studying hard, having fun, and contributing to the overall good of university life is a matrix for success we have always embrace. With fraternal integrity, we have always regained our good fraternal sense after self-inflicted destructive periods and reestablished higher fraternal standards in living and acting positively. High standards and commitment to excellence are the gold-standard that always point the way to success in anything in life, and we, as a brotherhood, continue to believe in creating the right fraternal mindset to be a positive and engaged undergraduate and graduate chapter of Phi Gamma Delta, because brotherhood is a trust from generation-to-generation, and ours started in 1874.

We have always been an active and engaged brotherhood since our fraternal beginning in 1874, achieving success in all areas at the University of Maine. It has been well-documented about the number of talented athletic brothers Omega Mu has had since the early 1870’s, as well as the number of brothers who worked diligence and enthusiasm and made significant and lasting impacts on many University of Maine committees and organizations as talented leaders or hard-working members, and that is an equally important historical legacy to smile at with Omega Mu pride. From managing editors of the Maine Campus, class presidents, and other leadership positions, we have been a strong, supportive pillar within the University of Maine community. In athletic achievement and community involvement within the university, we have a lot to be proud of as a brotherhood; nevertheless, there is one area were we have left our mark but rarely, if ever, celebrate: scholarship. Our brotherhood has been blessed from our beginning with many brothers who stood fast were industrious and hardworking in their respective academic fields of study, and one of them, Carroll S. Chaplin, 1904, was academically preeminent and was chosen to be class valedictorian.

Carroll S. Chaplin’s
Valedictorian Speech

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’s home in Portland, Maine

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.

The KKK in Portland, Maine

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 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!