Middlebury College

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Mead Memorial Chapel at Middlebury College Mead has been removed from chapel name.

Ex-Governor John A. Mead and his wife donated an 11-bell Meneely (Watervliet) chime to be placed in the chapel that they had also donated.  The chime was first played on December 31, 1915 and was dedicated on January 6, 1916 by E. A. Meneely. 

The bells were showing (and sounding) their age by 1985, when a student broke her hand playing them.  The college was given the opportunity to purchase the 1959 van Bergen carillon of 25 bells from the Atlantic Methodist Church in North Quincy, Massachusetts due to the church being closed and sold.  College board chairman and 1950 graduate Alan R. Dragone offered to pay for the van Bergen bells as well as the cost of sending them and the 11 Meneely bells to the Paccard foundry in France for recasting or retuning.  The Paccard Foundry retuned 21 bells, recast 15 bells, and added 12 new bells to complete the new carillon of 48 bells

The new carillon was dedicated on May 24, 1986 by George Matthew.

The 12 van Bergen bells were recast or replaced by Meeks, Watson and Company in 2001.

References
1986 "Chapel Bells to Ring Again in Middlebury," The Burlington Free Press, April 30, 1986, Page 13 | Part 2 |

1986 "Bells are Ringing Again From Middlebury Chapel," Rutland Daily Herald, May 22, 1986, Page 19.

1986 "A sound solution," The Boston Globe, May 24, 1986, Page 2.
Last spring, after a Middlebury College student broker her hand playing the chapel bells, the college decided something had to be done.

1987 "The Middlebury College Carillon," by Erik Borg and George Matthew, Jr., Bulletin of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America 36:12- (January 1987)

2003 "Alan R. Dragone," by Erik Borg and George Matthew, Jr., Bulletin of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America 52:16 (2003)
His bequest permitted Middlebury College to remove the original eleven bells, purchase 25 Van Bergen bells from the Atlantic United Methodist Church in Quincy, Massachusetts, and send these 36 bells to the Paccard Fonderie des Cloches, Annecy, France. The Paccard Foundry retuned 21 bells, recast 15 bells, and added 12 new bells to complete the new carillon of 48 bells.

2020 Behind the Mead Chapel bells, carillonneur George Matthew Jr. plays for passion and protest 

Middlebury Carillon  

© 2023 Morris A. Pierce