courtesy of special collections, Langsdale Library

The only clue we had was a date stamp—Oct. 22, 1958—on a yellowed sheet of parchment that also includes the words to “Auld Lang Syne.” But there on that sheet are the nautical-themed lyrics to a song titled simply “Alma Mater,” encouraging graduates to “sail on with the tide” and noting that the University of Baltimore “set their course for life’s most distant shore.”

This past fall, however, William E. Clift, B.S. ’51, contacted the Office of Alumni Relations with information that the alma mater had been included in the senior banquet program from his graduation year.
Still, no one knows who wrote the song or when it was written, and few knew it even existed until Tom Hollowak, associate director of special collections in UB’s Langsdale Library, ran across the aging document, together with its accompanying sheet music, in 1990 while doing work in the University’s archives. Now no one knows why it disappeared.

Bob Pool, M.B.A. ’85, faculty liaison and reference librarian at the UB Law Library, doesn’t recall the alma mater being sung when he came to the University in 1974, so he guesses it fell out of use between 1951 and 1974.
With his background in music theory and composition, Pool has created a variety of instrumental accompaniments for the sheet music, and now the official score—for full orchestra—has caught the ear of the student population. During last fall’s student orientation, incoming freshmen learned the song, then performed it for new transfer and graduate students.

The alma mater was also included in the commencement program this year for the first time since its rediscovery.

Do you know more about UB’s alma mater? Fill us in: Contact the Office of Alumni Relations at 410.837.6131 or alumni@ubalt.edu.