A Vermont Superior Court judge decided Friday that Middlebury Chapel at Middlebury College can keep its name, dealing a blow to a lawsuit brought by former Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas that sought to restore the building’s original moniker, Mead Memorial Chapel.
In an order issued Oct. 3, Superior Court Judge Robert Mello rejected most of Douglas’ arguments, writing the former governor “would not be entitled to relief compelling Middlebury to retain the chapel’s original name or monetary relief compensating the name change” no matter the outcome of the case.
The decision is a significant setback for Douglas, who filed suit over a year ago over the college’s decision to remove Mead’s name — a decision that he said was motivated by “cancel culture.”
In an interview, Douglas said he was disappointed with the court’s order, but noted that it left the door open for a jury trial on several remaining questions.
“I said all along that I want a jury to hear this case,” said Douglas, a Middlebury alum and former Republican governor of Vermont from 2003 to 2011. “I think a group of 12 disinterested people will be fair.”
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For over a century, the white chapel has stood at the highest point on the campus of Middlebury College. The chapel was originally named Mead Memorial Chapel in honor of the family of John Abner Mead, an alum and Republican governor of Vermont from 1910 to 1912 who donated money for the construction of the structure.
But in 2021, Middlebury College removed the Mead name and rechristened it Middlebury Chapel.
Amid a statewide reckoning over Vermont’s history of eugenics, college administrators pointed to Mead’s support — laid out in a 1912 farewell address to the legislature — for a state program to deal with what he called degenerates, or “a class of individuals in whose mental or nervous construction there is something lacking.”
In that speech, Mead asked the legislature to consider instituting new restrictions on marriage “among defectives” and to consider a state vasectomy program.
But, in a complaint filed in Addison County Superior Court last March, Douglas argued the college overstated Mead’s role in the state’s eugenics movement. Eugenics legislation was not passed until nearly two decades after Mead’s speech, the complaint argues.
In the lawsuit, Douglas, who was appointed Special Administrator of the Mead estate, asked the court to restore the Mead name to the building and to award restitution and damages to the estate.
Douglas argued that Mead provided funds with the understanding the college would build a chapel named for the Mead family, which amounted to a contract — and the removal of the name breached that contract.
Removing his name from the building “makes Governor Mead a scapegoat and does a disservice to his memory, the good works he performed throughout his lifetime, and particularly the love and devotion he showed to Middlebury College,” the suit reads.
Middlebury College, however, argued that Mead’s donation for the chapel was in fact a gift, not a binding contract. And as such, the college argued, it was under no obligation to reverse its decision to rename the building.
“When Governor Mead pledged funds for the construction of a chapel on the Middlebury campus over a century ago, did that gift impose a perpetual, legally binding obligation for the College to maintain the name ‘Mead Memorial Chapel’ on the building?” attorneys for Middlebury wrote in a filing last year. “The answer is manifestly no.”
Either way, Judge Mello wrote in his recent ruling, the court would not order Middlebury to restore the name.
“Governor Mead contributed most of the funds supporting the initial construction of the chapel, but he did not provide funds for its indefinite maintenance,” Mello wrote, “and Middlebury has determined that the time has come to change the name.”
Instead, the case can proceed on much narrower grounds. The only questions left to be settled are whether the agreement between the college and Mead was a gift or a contract, and if the latter, whether “Middlebury breached the covenant of good faith and fair dealing.”
Jon Reidel, a spokesperson for Middlebury College, said the institution was pleased with the court’s decision.
“The College’s attorneys are evaluating the next steps to fully resolve the few remaining issues and move this case toward a close,” Reidel said in a statement. “The College has and will remain committed to exercising the fundamental right of freedom of expression and open debate on our campus and welcomes all voices on this issue.”
Jared Carter, a law professor at Vermont Law and Graduate School, said he had always seen the case to be more about politics than a standard contractual dispute.
“They wanted to change the name because of the sordid history of Mead,” he said. “And so this was an effort to stop that, gussied up as a contract law claim. But I always thought it was a long shot, as a result, so I’m certainly not surprised by the outcome here.”
Douglas said in an interview that it was still too soon to say whether he would appeal the decision. But, he noted, the college could always decide to restore the name on its own.
“We’re supposed to be learning from history and not erasing it,” he said. “So I — despite the judge’s declining to order the college to restore the name — hold out some hope that it still could happen.”
Disclosure: Jared Carter is providing pro bono legal assistance to VTDigger in an unrelated public records case.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Middlebury Chapel can keep its new name, court rules, in victory for college.