The Inauguration of
President Selma Botman

  • Saturday, April 25, 2009

Historic Moments in the Life of USM

We reflected on the University's heritage in preparation of another key moment in the institution's history—the inauguration of USM's 10th president.


A Pledge to the USM community and Maine citizens

As with your predecessors, we make with you a pact of trust that you will preserve and enhance this institution and work tirelessly to extend its benefits to those who constitute its community and to the larger community of which it is so firm a part.

We charge you to defend and advance the interests of the women and men of the faculty: to cherish the great tradition of academic freedom and to lead by word and by deed those who themselves are looked to for wisdom and leadership

We entrust to you our hopes for the future and the University’s reason for being—its students. You are first teacher among the company of teachers, and it is incumbent on you and your colleagues so to nurture and instruct that those who study here....

And we ask that you never forget that the life of the University depends on the confidence and support of the people of southern Maine and of the State of Maine.

—Charge to then-incoming USM President Richard L. Pattenaude by then-Chancellor Robert L. Woodbury at Pattenaude’s inauguration on Nov. 1, 1991. Pattenaude, who is now chancellor of the University of Maine System, made similar remarks during the installation of President Botman.


Historic Symbol

Patricia Plante was the first USM president to wear this medallion, which President Selma Botman will receive at Saturday's inauguration. The Latin word veritas (truth) is inscribed on the back of the Presidential Medallion.


The Founders

From its founding in 1878 (as Gorham Normal School) through 1970, when the Gorham and Portland campuses merged to become the University of Maine at Portland-Gorham, the Gorham campus had only four presidents throughout that 92-year period. Can you name them (Hint: all four have campus buildings in Gorham named in their honor)?

William Corthell, Walter E. Russell, Francis L. Bailey, and Kenneth T.H. Brooks


The Historic President's House

William Corthell, the first president of USM’s predecessor school, Gorham Normal School, had a home off campus. Corthell’s successor, Walter Russell, lived in what was a new residence, now known as the President’s House, which was built in 1906. The President’s House was built with an incentive grant of $7,000 from Frederick Robie, state money, and other gifts, for a total cost of $10,000. This 100+-year-old house is where President Botman now resides.


A Poignant Moment

At the inauguration of 4th President Kenneth T.H. Brooks, a very special person in Brooks’s life presented the invocation: his father the Rev. Walter E. Brooks. The elder Brooks also gave the benediction at his son’s last Commencement as president in 1970. The reverend was 92 at that time.


back to Inauguration home