Memorial Gateway – Warren Eastman Robinson

Robinson Memorial Gateway

An impressive feature of the commencement exercises at Bowdoin College this year was the dedication of the Warren Eastman Robinson Gateway, presented by Mrs. Annie Louise Robinson of Brunswick, in memory of her husband, Lieutenant Robinson, who was mortally wounded near Verdun in the closing days of the war. The dedicatory exercises were held on Wednesday, June 23, near the gateway at the southwest corner of the campus. Robert Hale, a former classmate of Lieut. Robinson, made an eloquent presentation address in behalf of Mrs. Robinson. The gift was received by President Kenneth C. M. Sills for the college.

The peculiar appropriateness of the gateway as a memorial was emphasized in both addresses. Mr. Hale recalled the text of the baccalaureate sermon preached to the class of 1910, of which Lieut. Robinson was a member, “Enter ye in at the strait gate,” and spoke of the exemplification of the words in the life of his friend. He presented the gateway “in perpetual memory of those principles of loyalty, of sacrifice and devotion for which he so nobly lived and so gloriously died,” with the hope that “it may forever be to Bowdoin men a hallowed reminder of their heroic brother and a symbol of that strait gate which leadeth unto life.”

In accepting the gift, President Sills said, in part, “On the walls of another New England college there is a bronze tablet in memory of some students who were killed in fighting in the Revolution; and the inscription is the precious line from Horace: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. “A few years ago a young French instructor at the college passed by and read the words. ‘It would be sweet to die for France,’ he said; and in a few months the challenge came, and like a true son of France, he left his new home and wife and children and met death on the field of honor in one of the early engagements of the war. It may be that a hundred years from now some Bowdoin youth passing this gate may look up and read. ‘In Memory of Warren Eastman Robinson, 1890-1918, Bowdoin ’10, First Lieutenant U.S. Army, Second Battle of the Marne, St. Mihiel, Meuse, Argonne. Killed in action.’ It may be that he too will think it sweet to die for his country; it may be that he will enlist in some future war for freedom under the spell of the inspiration of the past. Better still is it to think that many a son of the college will see in this gateway a symbol indeed of the straight and narrow way that leadth unto life but also a memorial to duty simply and fully done; and the expression not only of accomplishment but of hope. For what Bowdoin men have done they can do. And on every campus not the only teachers are those who sit in professors’ chairs. There is a quaint story of Emerson, who when he visited Williams College remarked to the students that in the faculty list in the catalogue he noted on remarkable omission- that of Mount Graylock. And this gateway with its simple dignity and beauty will teach generations yet unborn that there is nothing fairer than a young life sacrificed for country.

“And so by virtue of the authority cested in me as President of the College, I accept the Warren Eastman Robinson Memorial Gateway presented by widow, and I dedicate it to the uses for which it is intended- a memoria to a brave son of the college, and an inspiration to right living and high patriotic service to all who shall pass by.”

The architecture and materical of the gateway were carefully planned to harmonize with its surroundings. The brick and limestone of the nearby buildings, Hubbard Hall and the Walker Art Museum are duplicated in the new structure. The post caps conform in the style with the ornamentation on Hubbard Hall, which is seen in the background. Although the memorial is essentially a Bowdoin product, having been originated and designed on the spot, some features of the design, especially in the wrought iron work, suggest the gateways of Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard. The severe dignity of the structure is relieved by the addition of seats and hedges, giving an air of comfor and welcome.

– Maine Library Bulletin, Volume 10, No. 1, July 1920

“There are stories associated with each of the twenty-nine lives whose names appear on [Bowdoin’s Memorial Flagpole]. One of these is the story of Warren Eastman Robinson.

Warren graduated from Bowdoin in 1910, summa cum laude. He was an educator who started out teaching at high schools in Quincy and Watertown, Massachusetts. He earned his master’s degree at Harvard, then joined the faculty at the Boston Public Latin School, where he taught until his work was interrupted by war.

He signed up, went through training in Texas, and sailed for France in September 1917. He became a battalion intelligence officer in January 1918 and spent most of that year at the front.

After midnight on November 5, 1918, he led a patrol into enemy lines near Verdun and was mortally wounded by machine gun fire. Warren Robinson died on November 6, just five days before the armistice that ended the war. He was 28 years old.

Warren’s wife, Anne, was living in Brunswick at her family home—the Boody-Johnson House—when she arranged for a gateway to be built in her husband’s memory just across the street at the corner of Park Row and College Street. She had an electric light installed in the center so she could see the gateway at night from her window.

For Anne, that memorial gateway with its light illuminated throughout the night permanently marked her husband’s presence in life.

That’s what these monuments do. They remind us of the people who studied here, some who taught, many who stood as proud Bowdoin alumni. They are much more than names etched in stone. They are names that remind us of the importance of service and the terrible cost of war.”

– President Mills’ Nov. 11 Veterans Day Remarks Archives , 11 Nov 2014

Location of the Memorial Gateway: The Historical Marker Database

Photo Credits:
1. Vintage postcard in Brunswick and Bowdoin College by Elizabeth Huntoon Coursen, 2. Unknown, 3. George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Bowdoin College Library, 4. George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Bowdoin College Library, 5. George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Bowdoin College Library, 6. William Fischer, Jr, 7. William Fischer, Jr, 8. Steve Perkinson, 9. George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Bowdoin College Library, 10. Billy Hathorn, 11. American Art Post Card Co., 12. William Fischer, Jr