For Studies and Other Honest Pursuits (Studiis et Rebus Honestis)*
by chuckofish
My grandfathers both grew up in Burlington, Vermont and several of their family members attended UVM. Recently perusing their online archives, I discovered some wonderful information about my great aunt Carly (Carolyn) and her brother, Guy, both of whom had very active college careers. I even found their yearbook pages. Here’s Carly’s (note the misspelled middle name. It should be Hendren).
Carly was a tri-Delt, the vice-president of her class and won prizes in economics and reading, but I especially like that she exhibited the family trait, an acerbic wit. After graduation, she appeared frequently in the alumni magazine — at that time a weekly that published social announcements, including notice of her wedding to Raymond Briggs.
The wedding must have been a somber affair, for Guy had been a fellow student and was, of course, her beloved baby brother. Their graduation photos were on the same page. I have divided them so that you can read them more clearly.
The school published several stories about Guy’s death, including the following:
and
Note that his commanding officer was George S. Patton. You’ll notice some discrepancies between the two stories. The official report says he died instantly (probably true); the other has him shot through the mouth, but still able to utter some last words (probably not true). Who knows? Clearly, Guy’s family felt the need to share these stories with the community. His death certainly convulsed their world: his wife, Dorothy, showed up out of the blue to meet the family; his mother died within months, and his brother (our grandfather), a veteran with a wife and child, never recovered his pre-war joie de vivre. After his mother died, I’m not sure he ever went back to Burlington again. Only the two daughters, Ethel and Carly (but especially Carly), kept the memory of family alive. She must have been the one who sent the stories into the alumni magazine. I wish I could have known them all.
I realize that the quality of these isn’t the best because they’re trimmed out of a scanned in yearbook page and enlarged, but I like these two pictures a lot.
Isn’t the internet a wonderful thing? Stay tuned next week for UVM news about the distaff side of the family!
*the University of Vermont motto. All photos and documents uploaded here are from their archive web page. See link above.
dual personalities 
Oh, wonderful, wonderful! You have done great research! Of course, I had always heard of the Patton letter and the Briggs were very proud of it–but I had never read it. Father was always very fond of his Aunt Carly and I seem to remember that he would have liked to name one of his daughters Carolyn, but Mother put the kabosh on it. Isn’t it great that Carly was a Tri-Delt like Susie? Interesting that she was an Economics scholar! Lots of new information to digest!
P.S. “Some GUY”–I love that.
I thought of Susie when I saw that Carly was a Tri-Delt — her sister, Ethel, had been one, too, but she seems to have left the sorority when she left UVM. Hazel Cameron was in a different sorority — I’ll talk about that next week.
Absolutely wonderful story…what can I say about these guys who sacrificed so much for our country? Your family is truly remarkable.
Loved it! I wish yearbooks nowadays had such excellent entries and tastefully dour photos for their students.
Great post! I especially loved the clips about Guy Chamberlin’s heroic death. He was clearly a very courageous man! It’s hard to imagine leading tanks through a wall of machine gun fire.
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