Father of all below, above,
Whose name is light, whose name is love,
Here be thy truth and goodness known,
And make these fields and halls thine own.

Thy temple gates stand open wide;
O Christ, we enter at thy side,
With thee to consecrate our pow'rs,
And make our Father's business ours.

For days of drought which yet shall be,
On untrod land, on unsail'd sea,
We kneel and fill our cup of youth,
At these fair fountains of thy truth.

O world, all bright and brave and young,
With deeds unwrought and songs unsung,
For all the strength thy tasks will give
We greet thee, we, about to live.

Father, thy children bless the care
Which sheds thy sunlight ev'rywhere,
Shine on our school and let us be
Teachers and scholars taught by thee.

–Phillips Brooks.

In 1931 the desire for a school shield first manifested itself, and Mr. Ashburn invited both amateurs and professionals to submit designs for one. These ranged from elaborate symbols of brooks and bridges to ones so stark as to be described by The Bishop as “spots of ink.” By February 1932 the motto had been proposed and accepted by C. Lyman ’32 and later that year the official Brooks shield, which had been suggested by faculty member Russell S. Morse, appeared on the cover of The Bishop for the first time.

The design of the shield consists of a black cross superimposed on a white cross and centered on a field of green. The bearing is one of great antiquity, and the motto with its play on words also has an ancient lineage. “Victuri te salutamus” is a Latin translation of the line in the School Hymn, “We greet thee, we, about to live;” but since “victuri” can also be rendered “about to conquer,” the motto takes on a double meaning. On the official seal of the school the motto is omitted and the shield is set on a background of four quatrefoils suggestive of ecclesiastic decoration and ringed with the words, “Sigillum Scholiae Brooksianae Andov. Septent. in Repub. Mass.”

Adapted from J. Tower Thompson’s Thirty Years at Brooks.

School Headmasters
Frank Davis Ashburn, Founding Headmaster, 1927–1973
H. Peter Aitken, 1973–1986
Lawrence W. Becker, 1986–2008
John R. Packard, Head of School, present

Headmaster Emeritus
Frank D. Ashburn 1927–1973*

Assistant Headmaster Emeritus
Richard F. Holmes 1948-1991*

Chaplain Emeritus
Timothy B. Cogan 1985-2002

Masters Emeriti

J. Tower Thompson*
1928–1958, 1971–1975

Howard T. Kingsbury*
1929–1941, 1952–1969

G. Chychele Waterston*
1932–1959, 1962–1971

F. Fessenden Wilder*
1933–1972

Edward W. Flint*
1936–1968

Rogers V. Scudder*
1936–1966

Aliça A. Waterston*
1935–1959, 1963–1971

George T. Barr*
1945–1965

Ray A. Eusden Jr.
1947–1979

Eric C. Baade*
1949–1951, 1964–1990

Stoddard G. Spader*
1952–1981

Nicholas J. Evangelos*
1953–1992

Lawrence E. Tuttle ’43
1954–1959, 1965–1983

John M. McVey
1958–1997

Isaac N. Northup*
1959–1971

William W. Dunnell III*
1963–1994

Michael B. King
1963–1999

E. Graham Ward
1964–1997

Leonard S. Perkins ’56*
1966–2002

William K Poirot*
1967–2005

Jacob Dunnell
1968–1994

Thomas K. Burgess
1973–2004

Raymond S. Broadhead
1975–2007

Michael M. McCahill
1976–2007

Myles J. "Dusty" Richard
1978–2019

Bob Morahan  
1979–2011

Maria C. Ward
1979–1997

Daniel A. Rorke, Jr.
1984–2004

Grace Z. Becker
1986–2008

John P.H. Morris
1982–2009

Douglas Gordon Burbank
1986–2020

 

*deceased

The Measure of Greatness

A sermon preached by the Rev. Bob Flanagan, School Minister, at the Frank D. Ashburn Chapel, North Andover, Massachusetts, on the 16th Sunday of School, Year A, Luke 9:46-48, February 4, 2009.

How do you measure greatness?

Do you measure it in the number of houses or cars someone has? Do you measure it in Superbowl or World Series victories? Do you measure it in Emmy, Tony or Oscar awards won? Do you measure it in the GPA earned? Do you measure it in number of matches won or goals scored? If we look at the number of statues of bronze or named schools or books written about someone, then Phillips Brooks must be measured as a great person.

And why was Phillips great? Simply he moved the hearts of men and women across the globe. His words spoke to the souls of millions in a way that drew people out of the despair of the mundane to higher vistas where they could see the land of goodness that they longed for. Phillips stirred souls. He quickened heart beats. He inspired thoughts of possibility.

Physically: Phillips stood at 6’4”, weighed over 300 pounds and spoke from the pulpit at Trinity Church, Boston at a mesmerizing 200 words a minute. His sermons were like a freight train rolling downhill or a freighter plowing downriver with an ebbing tide. He was completely captivating and utterly spellbinding.

However, he was not always this way. Phillips went to Harvard College when he was 16. Yes, I said 16. He was very bright. When he graduated from Harvard, at 19-years-old, he was delighted to be hired at his former school, the Latin School in Boston. At the time he wanted to become a college professor. So to gain some experience he figured he would teach high school for a time. He thought teaching high school Latin and Greek was a good, safe choice. Well, things didn’t go so well for Phillips. As a high school teacher, he was a complete failure.

After teaching some younger boys, he was assigned to teach upperclassmen. He was given a class of unruly boys and he was overconfident in his students’ desire to learn. They took complete advantage of him. The boys locked him in his classroom. They scatter explosive matches on the floor and even threw buckshot in his face. It was a class of chaos. Phillips became depressed and shortly later resigned. The headmaster of Latin School said to Phillips, within earshot of other faculty, that “he never knew a man who failed in teaching to succeed in anything else” (Woolverton, p. 51-53).

For a many months, Phillips did nothing. He spiraled into a funk. He was depressed and longed for his youth where all things were still possible. Finally, at the recommendation of his mentor at Harvard, he enrolled at the Protestant Episcopal Seminary of Virginia or as it is known in the south, “The Seminary.” It is also the seminary that I graduated from.

You might think that once Phillips landed at the seminary his life would have taken off. You might think that the 19th century’s greatest preacher would have immediately shined among his peers. Well, academically, Phillips did quite well, but as a preacher he needed work.

If you were to measure Phillips greatness at this moment in his life, you might simply laugh. I wonder if any of his seminary classmates ever thought he’d amount to much as a preacher. But Phillips didn’t give up. In fact, for the rest of his life, he took weekly voice lessons to improve his locution. And when he eulogized Abraham Lincoln in Philadelphia, just days after the president’s assassination, finally Phillips gained notoriety. His greatness began to grow. From there his greatness shot up and rose. Thousands of people packed into Trinity Church in Copley Square to hear him speak. And at his funeral some 15,000 people came to mourn the loss of this great man.

Some of you may feel like young Phillips. Maybe you have faced some setback recently. Maybe your life hasn’t gone just the way you’ve wanted. Look to Phillips as a model for your life. As I have illustrated to you, Phillips had several major failures in his life, but each time he sprang back. He reflected on what had happened. He sought advice from others and then found a solution. He didn’t give up, nor should you.

Maybe you’re unsure how to be better, how to become great. Look to Phillips as a mentor for your life. There are many books written about Phillips’ life and his writings. Many of these books are in our library down the hill. If you pull theses books off the shelf, you will discover many important insights and life-wisdom.

Maybe like Phillips you feel down and hard-pressed. Maybe you feel frustrated and in a funk. Look to Phillips as a mirror for your life. Are you wading in waters of woe? If so, hold up the life of Phillips to your own. Look hard at the failures in your own life. Do they compare to Phillips? If not, then what are you complaining about. Get out of that dark cold water onto dry land and get going and get positive.

Maybe you’re looking for a spark, a reason to push yourself to higher success. Look to Phillips as a motivator for your life. Phillips took his skills, his ability to communicate through written words and excelled. What are your skills? Take hold of your life and strive to do more and be even better.

For those of you who are faith focused and inspired, whose enthusiasm comes from God. Phillips writes these words: “To a young [person] just bursting through the open doors of life, radiant with health, eager for work with an infinite sense of vitality [give your life to God who is] “the Strengthener…the Setter of great tasks; the God who holds the crown of victory on the tops of high mountains up which…eager-hearted young heroes may climb to win it; the God who asks great sacrifices and who gives glorious rewards.”

Greatness is in each and every one of you. The measure of your greatness knows only the boundaries that you timidly build. You are held back only by the tiny fences that occupy the negative recesses of your mind. You stand at the threshold of potential with unbridled opportunity ready to carry you up great heights. So follow trail of giant footprints left by Phillips Brooks. With his help, with his overflowing enthusiasm, you too may one day be measured by statues of bronze, schools named after you, and books written describing your great achievements.

Bibliography: Woolverton, John Frederick, The Education of Phillips Brooks. (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1995)