Known as "the great builder,"[2] Chase constructed 22 new academic buildings and residential dorms on the campus of the college, tripled the number of students and faculty as well as quadrupling the financial endowment to one million dollars.

In the 1870s, in pursuit his life's work, he returned to Lewiston and enrolled in the theological school, which later became a part of the college's religion department.

[2] In order to better prepare himself, he spent a year as a graduate student at Harvard, returning in 1872 to join the Bates faculty as Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature.

Chase attended Bates' Cobb Divinity School while teaching, but eventually decided not to pursue a career in ministry.

[1][2] Chase taught for 22 years and during that time his administrative skills were noticed by the current Bates College president, Oren Burbank Cheney.