Our Nurturer and Friend
In 1952, students voted to change Bowdoin’s alma mater, “Bowdoin Beata,” to “Rise Sons of Bowdoin,” with music by Charles T. Burnett and words by Kenneth C.M. Sills, Class of 1901 and Bowdoin’s eighth president (1918-1952), in honor of President Sills’ retirement. In 1981, Lawrence Hall, a professor of English, and Gerard Haggerty, an assistant professor of art, proposed to rename the alma mater “Rise, Sun of Bowdoin” and change the lyric “a nurturer of men” to “the nurturer of them” to remove the gendered language. However, the alma mater did not change until 1994 when Anthony Antolini, the chorus director and a member of the Class of 1963, proposed to rewrite the song’s title and lyrics. The revised song, entitled “Raise Songs to Bowdoin” replaced “the nurturer of men” with the lyrics “our nurturer and friend.” The Alumni Council voted unanimously to approve both the title and lyric changes.
“Rise Sons of Bowdoin” lyrics by Kenneth C.M. Sills in Songs of Bowdoin, compiled by George A. Foster, Neal W. Allen, James M. Chandler (New York: Hinds, Noble & Edredge, 1906)