Enduring Presence

Original QTV House (center) During Graduation Week

Being a lover of art, English, theology, and history, I love the idea of seeing past voices still alive in the present through their respective works of art, books, and music and how a combination of intellectual and emotional impulses guided them all to accomplish what they created with excellence, craftsmanship, dedication, and vision. For instance, I believe I could stand in front of all of Bernini’s statues in the Borghese Galleria, or Obata and Hiroshege’s respective woodcut art, and Michelangelo’s Moses, Pieta, and David for days on end, and then come back for more days, and continually experience pure amazement at the vibrant idealism, scope, motion and pure beauty of these works of art. All creative people like Bernini, Obata, Hiroshege, and Michelangelo are, I believe, similar to the Old Testament prophets who had energetic ideas, principles, feelings, clear-eyed vision, and insights about the redemptive beauty of human action in creating something that is good and beautiful that stands the test to time. That distilling, embodying essence is a palpable architectural reality on the University Maine campus where many of the buildings are the enduring legacy of our 120-year history, and that our fraternal presence is here to stay.

But, for the most part, I genuinely admire these artists because they remind me of many of our fraternal brothers’ who had a driving love, energy, and imagination to coax an image of the good in their head into full expression in their academic service for generations of University of Maine students. These Q.T.V - Omega Mu brothers incarnated the substance of what Winston Churchill pithily asserted, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” They lived their lives in the house and in the years beyond with a sense of responsibility, a sense of adventure in caring about the larger questions of meaning, and then faithfully gave their time and service to the University of Maine, keeping faith with the university and QTV and Omega Mu. They each understood that achievement comes through several channels: discipline, faith, and love. To roughly paraphrase Paul Tillich, these QTV and Omega Mu brothers had the “Courage to be” and to be it well in their unstinting service. Using a range of intellectual, social, emotional, intuitive and reasoning skills, these QTV and Omega Mu brothers stepped into our university community and placed their hands on their respective vocational plow and turned many furrows with sturdiness and keenest of mind, adding good to the commonweal of our university, all the while maintaining an active role in our brotherhood. The deep-rooted and long-eyed historic presence of our QTV and Omega MU brothers can be seen in many eponymously named ivy-clad buildings and sites all over the University of Maine campus, and there are many other buildings that were either designed or built by our brothers, and that is something that we cannot help but be proud and grateful. That requires no embellishment. These buildings reflect our fraternal past as they serve students in the present, and they will continue to serve generations of University of Maine students into the future. We can smile at our enduring, ivy-clad architectural art on the Maine campus and College Avenue. If that is excessive Omega Mu pride, so be it.

George H. Hamlin (1873)

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• He was a professor of civil engineering at the University of Maine
• He helped design and superintended the construction of Coburn Hall and Wingate Hall
• He surveyed the land prior to building our present Castle and supervised its construction

Coburn Hall

Walter Balentine (1874)

Elizabeth Abbott Balentine

• He was a professor of agriculture at the University of Maine
  
• Balentine Hall was named in honor of his wife, Elizabeth Abbott Balentine
  

Balentine Hall

Oliver O. Crosby (1876)

• Graduated from the Engineering College
• Established one of the largest engineering firms in the Northwest, and they built a great deal of machinery that was used to build the Panama Canal
• His company built weapons for World War I
• Donated $400,000 to the University of Maine to have Crosby Hall built

Crosby Hall

Horace Melvin Estabrooke (1876)

Mrs. Estabrooke

• He was a professor of English at the University of Maine
  
• Wrote the University of Maine hymn, “O, Dear Loved Maine”
  
• (“And all thy children loyal stand, to guard thee well, O Dear Loved Maine.”)
  
• Estabrooke Hall was named in honor of Mrs. Estabrooke in 1940. Mrs. Estabrooke served as the housemother of a women’s dormitory, Mount Vernon House. Mount Vernon House used to be the Q.T.V Chapter House on fraternity row
  

Estabrooke Hall

Q.T.V Chapter House before it became Mount Vernon House in 1899 (Notice QTV Flag Displayed at Top of Photo)

Frank E. Kidder (1879)

• Graduated in 1879 with a degree in Civil Engineering
• He helped design the QTV Chapter House
• Studied architecture at Cornell University and M.I.T.
• Architect in Boston and Denver
• “Kidder also authored “The Architects’ and Builders’ Pocket-Book” (later “The Architects’ and Builders’ Handbook”), a technical book about building construction that has been used by several generations of builders and architects.” (University of Maine, Celebrating 150 Years)
• Coburn Hall: “Frank E. Kidder, a Boston architect and an 1879 Maine State College graduate, prepared the plans for Coburn Hall…Coburn Hall was considered a significant addition to the campus as it represented the importance of agriculture to the college and to the state.” (University of Maine, Celebrating 150 Years)
• Holmes Hall: “Frank Kidder, the architect responsible for Coburn and Wingate halls, designed the building that was initially called “Experiment Station.” At its dedication, it was renamed Holmes Hall.” (University of Maine, Celebrating 150 Years)
• Wingate Hall: “Frank Kidder, the architect responsible for Coburn and Wingate halls…” (University of Maine, Celebrating 150 Years)
• The Kidder Construction Company designed our first Castle that burned down in 1925.
• The Kidder Construction Company helped build our present Castle.

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Wingate Hall was Designed by Kidder

QTV, left, and Holmes Hall were designed by Kidder

Our First Chapter House on College Avenue was Designed by Kidder

James N. Hart (1885)

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• He was a professor of mathematics and astronomy
• Dean of University of Maine
• Acting president of the University of Maine
• Dean Hart attended the dedication of Hart Hall in 1956

Hart Hall

Joseph M. Murray (1925)

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• He was a professor of zoology at the University of Maine
• Head of the Zoology Department at the University of Maine
• Director of the University of Maine Marine Laboratory
• Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences
• Acting President of the University of the University of Maine
• “It is said that integrity and sincerity were fundamental characteristics of all his relations.” (University of Maine, Celebrating 150 Years)

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Murray Hall

Paul Cloke (1927)

• Dean of the College of Engineering from 1926–50
• Director of Technology Experiment Station
• “Maine men like to think, according to the newsmagazine, Time, that their College of Technology ranks third to M.I.T. and Carnegie Tech. Time was right. Maine men do. And if the college is the third in the country, no small credit goes to Dean Paul Cloke.” (1936 Prism)
• He opened Crosby Lab, and many other buildings during his tenure  
• Cloke Plaza is a bell located near Neville Hall
• The bell is Wingate because it was last used in Wingate Hall, and it rings every hour
• “The kinetic moiré pattern references Dean Paul Cloke’s early electrical engineering research and honors his tenure as the University’s longest serving Dean of the College of Engineering.” (Buster Simpson, BusterSimpson.net)

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Cloke Plaza on Campus

Early 1920’s Photo of The Castle (Designed by C. Parker Crowell; Crowell & Lancaster)

Phi Gamma Delta - Not for College Days Alone!

Chip Chapman, ‘82
Perge!