Trinity Reporter, Spring 2021

The Trinity Reporter SPRING 2021

A NEW CURRICULUM FOR A NEW CENTURY Real-world experiences, wellness program to complement academic core

C O N T E N T S F E A T U R E S

12 A new curriculum for a new century

Real-world experiences, wellness program to complement academic core

18 Compelling conversations

Virtual alumni events help community members stay in touch

22 Focus on fairness

Fay Stetz-Waters IDP’01 works to ensure Oregonians’ civil rights

26 ‘Dancing Everywhere’ Performance project creatively tackles challenges brought by COVID-19

32 Empowered women empower women Trinity’s Women’s Leadership Council energizes alumnae

O N T H E C OV E R Trinity’s new curriculum, which includes the introduction of a broad variety of creditbearing co-curricular experiences and a wellness program, will go into effect in fall 2021 with the incoming Class of 2025.

For more, please see page 12.

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Editor’s Note: Some photos in this issue were taken pre-pandemic, prior to mask-wearing and physical-distancing protocols.

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For more on the Learning Corridor, please visit commons. trincoll.edu/Reporter.

D E P A R T M E N T S

02 LETTERS 03 ALONG THE WALK 06 VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT 07 AROUND HARTFORD 10 TRINITY TREASURE 35 CLASS NOTES 68 IN MEMORY 70 ALUMNI EVENTS 72 ENDNOTE

T H E T R I N I T Y R E P O RT E R Vol. 51, No. 3, Spring 2021 Published by the Office of Communications, Trinity College, Hartford, CT 06106.

Postage paid at Hartford, Connecticut, and additional mailing offices. The Trinity Reporter is mailed to alumni, parents, faculty, staff, and friends of Trinity College without charge.

All publication rights reserved, and contents may be reproduced or reprinted only by written permission of the editor. Opinions expressed are those of the editor or contributors and do not reflect the official position of Trinity College.

Postmaster: Send address changes to The Trinity Reporter, Trinity College, 300 Summit Street, Hartford, CT 06106 The editor welcomes your questions and comments: Sonya Storch Adams, Office of Communications, Trinity College, 300 Summit Street, Hartford, CT 06106; sonya.adams@trincoll.edu; or 860-297-2143.

www.trincoll.edu O N T H I S PAG E Hartford’s Learning Corridor, located across Broad Street from Trinity College, marked its 20th anniversary in 2020.

Trinity was key partner in developing the 16-acre complex, which houses four interdistrict public schools, including Hartford Magnet Trinity College Academy.

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L ETTERS

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! The Trinity Reporter welcomes letters related to items published in recent issues. Please send remarks to the editor at sonya.adams@trincoll.edu or Sonya Storch Adams, Office of Communications, Trinity College, 300 Summit Street, Hartford, CT 06106.

‘JUST RIGHT’ WINTER ISSUE I thought the content of the winter 2021 issue of the Reporter was just right, and I appreciated the “Endnote.”

Allan Atherton ’64 Louisville, Kentucky REFLECTIONS ON FALL REPORTER Congratulations on a very nice piece of work [the fall 2020 issue]. I can’t recall such a set of intriguing articles and exciting and inviting graphics in a previous issue (not that I’m saying there weren’t; I just wasn’t as intrigued as I am by this one). And for what it’s worth, I do have at least a semi-trained ear and eye: I was a marketing manager and copywriter early in my career, and for 25 years, I was an artists’ representative for photographers and illustrators, mainly in this area. In fact, one of my photographers, Robert Reichert, shot the cover portrait and accompanying candids for The Reporter when Jimmy Jones was introduced as president. …

Specific aspects I especially like: the cover photo; the outsize headlines, which nonetheless remain readable; the “Lessons from History” article, both copy and graphics; and dedicating a full page to “The Connecticut River.” The photo is a bit wan, IMHO, but then again the poem [by Caroline Richards ’22] is about industry, and that’s captured by the photo. Great piece of writing.

Thank you … the presentation literally encouraged me to read more. And the copy encouraged me to keep reading.

Chip Caton ’71 Bloomfield, Connecticut

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ABOUT MR. TRINITY, JERRY HANSEN It was so wonderful to see an article about Jerry Hansen and his legacy at Trinity [“Mr. Trinity Himself,” spring 2020]. However, I truly feel that there is no amount of words that can paint an accurate picture of how much impact Jerry has had on the college, its student body, and alumni, especially.

I know I am only one among thousands (and thousands) who got to know Jerry while an undergrad at Trinity and who feels that he’s made a lasting impression on their life.

I had the pleasure of interacting with him as a tennis player, Alumni Office student employee, class officer, member of an alumni club, and part of his staff in the Alumni Office. He was always warm and approachable, encouraging and nurturing, and gave great counsel and advice on just about everything. Most importantly, he expected a lot out of me, so I learned to expect a lot out of myself.

He was instrumental in my career advancement at Trinity and beyond; he wrote my business school recommendation and made a personal phone call on my behalf. He didn’t have to do that—I don’t even think I asked him for that assistance—but he did it with pleasure and with conviction and never made me feel that I owed him anything for it but to be happy and successful.

While I moved on from Trinity and lived up and down the eastern coastline, Jerry and his equally amazing wife, Georgia, tried to keep up with me the best they could, through holiday cards, phone calls, and letters. He’s never given up on me from a personal or professional standpoint. I am grateful that Jerry has been in my life now for close to 35 years as a mentor, a friend, and a father figure.

And, he’s still got his wit, humor, and kindness. I had a lovely conversation with him just before reading this article.

He made me laugh, he listened intently to what was going on in my life, and, of course, we talked about Trinity. And, I’ll tell you, whenever I talk to Jerry, my heart warms for Trinity all over again, and I am motivated to support the college. In my eyes, there is no replacing this man, ever.

Thank you for paying tribute to Jerry and his family, and the honors he has received over the years from the college are well deserved. I am sure there will be many more!

Karen Isgur Damon ’92 Andover, Massachusetts

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SETTLING IN FOR SPRING Jackie Frank ’24 takes part in the age-old rite of moving in for a new semester as she totes belongings to her residence hall in late February. The move-in dates were a bit later in 2021 than in previous years, given the changes in the academic calendar in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The spring semester started remotely in early February and in person on March 1.

↗ For more on how Trinity has adapted to the pandemic, please visit commons.trincoll.edu/Reporter.

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UP DAT E

Campus climate

Trinity College President and Professor of Neuroscience Joanne Berger-Sweeney teaches “Neurons, Learning, and Memory,” a fall 2021 J-Term offering that marked her first opportunity to instruct a full course at the college.

The overall objective of the course—entirely remote due to adjustments made to the academic calendar because of the pandemic—was to provide students with a basic understanding of the neuroscience of learning and memory.

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The end of the spring 2021 semester also marks the completion of the final year of teaching for six Trinity College faculty members, listed below. For more on these distinguished individuals, please visit commons.trincoll.edu/Reporter.

LUCY FERRISS Writer-in-Residence RONALD KIENER Professor of Religious Studies MICHAEL O’DONNELL Principal Lecturer and Laboratory Coordinator in Biology SHEILA M. FISHER Professor of English DAVID A. REUMAN Associate Professor of Psychology JAMES A. TROSTLE Scott M. Johnson ’97 Distinguished Professor of Anthropology

Assaiante named to hall of fame Trinity College Head Men’s Squash Coach Paul Assaiante recently was named to the College Squash Hall of Fame Class of 2021. The College Squash Association (CSA) paid tribute to Assaiante and fellow inductee David Slosburg, an avid squash supporter, during the livestreamed College Squash Awards show on March 25.

During his 27 seasons at Trinity, Assaiante guided the Bantams to 17 CSA national titles, including 13 consecutive crowns from 1999 to 2011, and 252 wins in a row, giving Trinity ownership of the longest-known winning streak in the history of intercollegiate varsity sports. Assaiante, the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Coach of the Year in 2008, 2009, and 2013, holds a 438–16 all-time record as the Bantam head coach, including 14 consecutive conference titles. Inducted into the U.S. Squash Hall of Fame in 2016, Assaiante twice was named the U.S. Olympic Committee Coach of the Year and was hailed in 2000 by The Hartford Courant as one of Connecticut’s top sports coaches of the 20th century. From 1999–2003 and again from 2010 to the present, Assaiante has coached the U.S. Squash Team and the USA Men’s Team. He also coached the Trinity men’s tennis squad for 19 seasons, notching a 188–97 career record with the Bantams.

Assaiante, Paul D. Assaiante Professor of Physical Education and associate director of the athletic endowment, was the recipient in 2002 of Trinity’s Arthur H. Hughes Award for Achievement in Teaching, which recognizes excellence in teaching by a junior member of the faculty. He also is the co-author of two books, including 2012’s Run to the Roar: Coaching to Overcome Fear.

THE TRINITY REPORTER

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Neuroscience knowledge

As Trinity continues to aspire to be a community that is truly inclusive, welcoming, and safe for all, President Joanne Berger-Sweeney has shared several updates on progress and next steps regarding the college’s work to address systemic racism and sexual misconduct.

Key developments include the establishment and ongoing work of the Campus Climate Task Force, led by Berger-Sweeney and Anita Davis, vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the retention of a law firm to review and assess issues and to offer recommendations in response to matters raised on the @trinsurvivors and @blackattrin Instagram accounts.

In a January letter to the community, BergerSweeney emphasized the importance of these endeavors. “This work is urgent but unending, and it requires the commitment of every one of us if we are to achieve for our campus something that has so far eluded broader society,” ↗ To learn more about she said. “We take this aspiTrinity’s ongoing ration seriously; ultimately, at efforts, including specific recommendaTrinity and at every college, tions and action steps, no amount of racism or sexual please visit commons. misconduct is acceptable.” trincoll.edu/Reporter.

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Tech-Edge in second year

Paul Sullivan ’95

Beyond the Summit Trinity College’s new podcast series—Beyond the Summit— features accomplished Trinity alumni in conversations about their journeys to and beyond the college.

The inaugural season, launched in January 2021 and hosted by New York Times columnist and author Paul Sullivan ’95, showcases five entrepreneurs: David Schnadig ’86, co-president of Cortec Group and Trinity trustee; Danai Pointer ’07, communications strategist and founder of TruNude; Elizabeth Elting ’87, founder and CEO of the Elizabeth Elting Foundation and Trinity trustee; Rhoden Monrose ’09 founder and CEO of CariClub and Board of Fellows member; and Ross Buchmueller ’87, president and CEO of the PURE Group of Insurance Companies and Trinity trustee. Planning is underway for season 2 of the podcast.

Trinity College’s Tech-Edge, a summer program that bridges the liberal arts and the future of digital technology, launches its second annual three-week session on June 7 with the addition of a Future of Work Forum focused on preparing students to adapt to the new, changing landscape of work via panels with companies and industry professionals.

Part of the Trinity-Infosys Applied Learning Initiative, an unprecedented collaboration between the college and the global tech giant, Tech-Edge is designed to give liberal arts undergraduate students and recent college graduates with little or no STEM background the core skills in technology and business innovation necessary to prepare them for the future of work.

Trinity Trustee Lou Shipley ’85, a three-time tech CEO and a lecturer at Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan School of Management who also was a 2020 Tech-Edge instructor, noted the benefits of the program. “TechEdge provides a good balance of important business and technology fundamentals and concepts that are quickly grasped by liberal arts students whose skills include creative thinking, problem-solving, and effective communications,” he said. Shipley added that his own daughter, Vanessa, a current student at Colgate University, took part in the program, along with participants from several other colleges and universities, including Middlebury College and Colby College, as well as Trinity.

While Tech-Edge originally was envisioned as being held in person, the COVID19 pandemic forced a shift to remote learning in 2020. That format continues in 2021, with participants acquiring basic technology skills—including programming and software development basics, cybersecurity fundamentals, and data analysis and visualization— in remote sessions taught by Trinity faculty members. Business innovation fundamentals are led by industry experts in the fields of accounting, marketing, finance, operations, and strategy, as well as Infosys-powered digital technology.

Innovative sessions include a Design Thinking boot camp, which introduces participants to a human-centered process for creative problem-solving. That process is then put to use in a two-day real-world challenge, where participants solve a business problem for a company or nonprofit.

Participants who complete the Tech-Edge program—led by faculty directors Takunari Miyazaki, associate dean for faculty development and associate professor of computer science, and Jennifer Regan-Lefebvre, faculty director of innovation initiatives and associate professor of history—receive a digital badge that can be published on social media, including LinkedIn. Applications for ↗ next year’s program For more information will be available in about Tech-Edge or the early 2022.

Trinity-Infosys Applied Learning Initiative, please visit commons. trincoll.edu/Reporter.

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To listen to the podcast series and to learn more about Sullivan, please visit commons.trincoll.edu/Reporter.

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VOLUNTEER SPOTLGHT

Khaoula Ben Haj Frej ’18 Khaoula Ben Haj Frej ’18 is an enthusiastic alumni interviewer for the Admissions Volunteer Program. Since starting in summer 2020, she has interviewed more than a dozen students, sharing her love of, and answering their questions about, the college.

“I was very, very involved on campus,” she explains, in perhaps more than a bit of understatement. A neuroscience major with minors in English and biology, Ben Haj Frej worked as both a neuroscience and biology research assistant.

She was a resident assistant and an active

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volunteer with the Office of Multicultural Affairs. And that’s not all.

At different times during her Trinity career, she worked at the Underground Coffeehouse, in the office overseeing residential life, and at the front desk in the Raether Library and Information Technology Center.

“I go after opportunities I enjoy,” explains Ben Haj Frej, who is a clinical research coordinator at the Center for Cancer Therapeutic Innovation at DanaFarber Cancer Institute in Boston. As far as admissions interviewing goes, “I’m

a recent grad, which I think translates well to prospective students. I get to talk to people from all over the world and be a positive face for the college. It’s also a way for me to give back to Trinity.”

Ben Haj Frej considers the latter to be an imperative. “All of the opportunities I’ve had are because of Trinity,” she says. “I try to pass that on.” For example, after taking part in a Multicultural Affairs panel, “Hijabs and Hoodies,” Ben Haj Frej began communicating on Instagram with a graduate who works at the United Nations. That led to her involvement in a 2019 conference, “Women’s Resistance to State and Secular Violence: Indigenous and Muslim Perspectives.” She now volunteers as a grant writer with the U.N. in Uganda.

“Trinity was the reason I got my first job at Dana-Farber [as a research technician] and my second job,” she continues. “I connected with alumni on LinkedIn who worked at Dana-Farber.

They read over my cover letter and forwarded my résumé.”

“Doing admissions interviewing is different from anything else I do,” she says. “It’s new, fun, and exciting—and I get to share my love of Trinity with prospective students. I still remember doing my alumni interview with Trinity when I was applying.”

Senior Associate Director of Admission Courtney Roach ’16, who chairs the admissions volunteer program, appreciates the energy Ben Haj Frej brings to volunteering. “When I send out a communication, I know Khaoula will be one of the first to respond,” Roach says. “I love to see that enthusiasm.”

Ben Haj Frej looks forward to keeping up her involvement with the Admissions Volunteer Program even with some upcoming life changes: she will be starting medical school in fall 2021. “I’ve already been accepted into a number of schools and will be making my decision this spring about where to attend,” she concludes, adding, given the sum total of her experiences at the college, “Trinity was the reason I got into medical school, too.”

—Maura King Scully

THE TRINITY REPORTER

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E L I Z A B E T H PA R K 1561 A S Y LU M AV E N U E W E ST H A RT F O R D, C T

A ROUND H A RTFORD

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About four miles northwest of Trinity College’s 100-acre campus lies the similarly sized Elizabeth Park, which features the new Garmany Visitor’s Center, a recently constructed permanent stage for performances, an accredited arboretum, recreational facilities including tennis courts and walking loops, and more. The park’s centerpiece is the oft-photographed Helen S Kaman Rose Garden—with elegant arches in full bloom from mid-June to early July—billed as the oldest municipal rose garden in the United States.

Opened to the public in 1897, Elizabeth Park honors Elizabeth A. Pond, wife of Hartford businessman Charles M. Pond, who bequeathed the property to the city under the stipulation that the space be associated with his beloved’s name in perpetuity. While more than 80 percent of the park is physically located in West Hartford, it is owned by the City of Hartford, which has a public-private partnership with the Elizabeth Park Conservancy to ensure its continued maintenance and restoration and to oversee events. While COVID19 forced the cancellation of most park happenings and the temporary closure of the Pond House, the on-site café and banquet venue, the Conservancy continues to assess the feasibility of future events. All the while, the park continues to provide an important outlet during the pandemic, serving as a popular destination for walkers, joggers, and safe outdoor exercising. For up-to-date information about Elizabeth Park, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, please visit commons.trincoll.edu/Reporter or www.elizabethparkct.org.

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A meeting that saved democracy Trinity Trustee Michael J. Kluger ’78, P’13, retiring from the board this month, said he has wondered why so few people know about the historic Atlantic Conference. After a 40-year career on Wall Street, the Trinity history major thought perhaps it was time to write a book.

Roosevelt and Churchill, The Atlantic Charter: A Risky Meeting at Sea that Saved Democracy, by Kluger and his British co-author, Richard Evans, was published in January 2021.

“Over many years, there has been this relationship between Great Britain and the United States that has been mutually beneficial, and beneficial to the world,” said Kluger. “There’s nothing better to show what good things have happened from that relationship than the four days in August 1941 that FDR and Winston Churchill spent meeting at sea off the coast of Newfoundland.

“I felt it was timely—particularly with the resurgent ‘America First’ movement—to remind people of what the two leaders accomplished in the very dark days prior to the United States entering World War II. They met 120 days before Pearl Harbor and discussed many issues related to defeating the Nazis. At the conclusion of their meeting, they issued a joint proclamation, which came to be known as the Atlantic Charter. A little more than 200 words, it covered eight points outlining how civilized nations should act. Since its release, most democratic nations have

adhered to the charter’s points and principles, and the nations of the world have avoided another world war.”

After Trinity, Kluger earned an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and built his career in private equity, focusing on health care industry investments. He and his wife, Heidi Greene ’78, P’13, reside in Palm Beach, Florida, but maintain a home in Redding, Connecticut.

The hour-and-a-half drive from Redding to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, ↗ New York, meant invaluTo see a Virtual Long Walk able access to a trove event with Kluger and to learn about his thoughts of material. Likewise, on his writing mentor, Kluger’s co-author had Milla Riggio, James J. important access to the Goodwin Professor of English, Emerita, please Churchill Archives Centre visit commons.trincoll. at Churchill College, edu/Reporter.

Cambridge.

Kluger’s keen interest in history was sparked by the captivating lectures of then-Northam Professor of History George Cooper. Kluger said he was surprised at Honors Day 1978 to be awarded the George B. Cooper Prize in British History.

“Cooper’s focus was 18th-century Britain, and he was amazing,” said Kluger. Cooper passed away in 1995, but Kluger suspects he would have been pleased about this book. “Other than my mother, George Cooper would have been the proudest.”

Newman Civic Fellow Trinity College student Karolina Barrientos ’22 recently was named a 2021–22 Newman Civic Fellow, an honor awarded this year to only 212 students from 39 states, Washington, D.C., and Mexico. The Newman Civic Fellowship is a one-year fellowship experience for communitycommitted students from Campus Compact member institutions that support students’ personal, professional, and civic development.

The fellows are leaders on their campuses who demonstrate a commitment to finding solutions for challenges facing communities locally, nationally, and internationally.

Barrientos, a sociology and educational studies major, said she has a passion for researching and studying educational injustices. The Houston native attended the Houston Independent School District and

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had attended only public institutions until she began studying at Trinity.

“My schools were mostly composed of marginalized students and lacked the resources many of my current peers had in their [pre-Trinity] experience,” said Barrientos.

“When I enrolled in education and sociology courses, I learned the systemic causes of those injustices. Fortunately, I was lucky to have mentors in my schooling experience that led me to opportunities like attending Trinity College.”

Barrientos said it is important to pay her experience forward and help other students who are from backgrounds similar to hers.

She has mentored elementary students in

ConnectiKids, a nonprofit youth development organization that focuses on educating, enriching, and empowering Hartford’s youth; participated in Trinity’s Community Action Gateway program to develop and implement a social change project in Hartford; and served as an EMERGE fellow in the program designed to empower and prepare high-performing students from underserved communities to attend and graduate from selective colleges and universities.

Barrientos is the fifth Trinity student to receive this honor. Those who preceded her are Tiana Starks ’21, Matthew Rivera ’20, Marlén Miranda ’20, and Rachael DiPietro ’15.

THE TRINITY REPORTER

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R E C E N T P U B L I C AT I O N S

The Soviet Writers’ Union and Its Leaders: Identity and Authority under Stalin

Carol Any, Associate Professor of Language and Culture Studies; Northwestern University Press, 2020; 318 pages

The Way of the Platonic Socrates

Shane Montgomery Ewegen, Associate Professor of Philosophy; Indiana University Press, 2020; 158 pages

The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, Volume Nine, Catastrophe and Rebirth, 1939–1973

Edited by Samuel D. Kassow ’66, Charles H. Northam Professor of History, and David G. Roskies; Yale University Press, 2020; 1,014 pages

Methods in Enzymology: Volume 628; Enzyme Activity in Single Cells

Edited by Nancy L. Allbritton and Michelle L. Kovarik, Associate Professor of Chemistry; Academic Press, 2019; 307 pages

Vodún: Secrecy and the Search for Divine Power

Timothy R. Landry, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Religious Studies; University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019; 201 pages

Our Sixties: An Activist’s History

Paul Lauter, Allan K. Smith and Gwendolyn Miles Smith Professor of English, Emeritus; University of Rochester Press, 2020; 287 pages

Rethinking Urbanism: Lessons from Postcolonialism and the Global South

Garth Myers, Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of Urban International Studies and Director of the Center for Urban and Global Studies; Bristol University Press, 2020; 227 pages

Prospective Memory in Clinical Populations

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Edited by Sarah Raskin, Charles A. Dana Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience; Routledge, 2020; 308 pages

Diagnosing Desire: Biopolitics and Femininity into the Twenty-First Century Alyson K. Spurgas, Assistant Professor of Sociology; The Ohio State University Press, 2020; 273 pages

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Jacques Rancière und die Literatur

Erik M. Vogt, Gwendolyn Miles Smith Professor of Philosophy, and Michael Manfé; Turia + Kant, 2020; 243 pages

Vegetables for Breakfast from A to Z: Change Your Breakfast, Change Your Life Nancy Wolfson-Moche ’77 Pomegranate Gallery, 2020; 116 pages

Roosevelt and Churchill, The Atlantic Charter: A Risky Meeting at Sea that Saved Democracy

Michael Kluger ’78, P’13 and Richard Evans; Frontline Books, 2021; 203 pages

A Question of Freedom: The Families Who Challenged Slavery from the Nation’s Founding to the Civil War William G. Thomas III ’86; Yale University Press, 2020; 418 pages

The Last Caucus in Iowa

Jim O’Loughlin ’88; Ice Cube Press, LLC, 2020; 171 pages

Migration, Mobility, and Sojourning in Cross-Cultural Films: Interculturing Cinema Ishani Mukherjee and Maggie Griffith Williams ’02; Lexington Books, 2021; 166 pages

It Is Wood, It Is Stone

Gabriella Burnham ’09; One World, 2020; 228 pages

If you have a recent book, CD, or video that you would like listed in The Trinity Reporter, please submit a copy to Sonya Storch Adams, Office of Communications, Trinity College, 300 Summit Street, Hartford, CT 06106. Questions? Email sonya. adams@trincoll.edu.

Berger-Sweeney O N LU C E F O U N DAT IO N B OA R D Trinity College President Joanne Berger-Sweeney was elected last fall to the Board of Directors of The Henry Luce Foundation, which seeks to enrich public discourse by promoting innovative scholarship, cultivating new leaders, and fostering international understanding. The foundation focuses on grant-making and leadership programs in the fields of Asia, higher education, religion and theology, art, and public policy.

Luce Foundation Board Chair Margaret Boles Fitzgerald said in announcing the appointment that she was confident of the value Berger-Sweeney would bring to the foundation’s work. “Her professional credentials are stunning; so, too, is her life history, which mirrors the diverse aspirations and goals of leadership, scholarship, and global engagement to which the Luce Foundation has aspired for over 85 years,” she said. “Dr. Berger-Sweeney adds a gracious and strong voice to those of our directors, staff, and grant-making partners around the world as we further our mission and strive for programmatic excellence.”

Berger-Sweeney said that she was honored to join the board. “The foundation’s mission aligns with my own and that of the institution I lead,” she said. “As a global community of learners, we provide an innovative learning environment built on a foundation of a traditional liberal arts education.

I look forward to bringing that perspective to bear in service to Luce, an exceptional organization that has advanced our understanding and appreciation of the world.”

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COVID-19 Testing Center Someday, Trinity College students will tell future generations about living through the COVID-19 pandemic, and their stories will include being on Trinity’s campus. Everyone is wearing masks, and the Memorial Field House in Ferris Athletic Center has been transformed into a COVID-19 Testing Center, with coaches and staff directing everyone to stop at each station: Blow your nose … disinfect hands … register … wait … swab … cap sample … disinfect hands … drop off sample. Stats from the fall 2020 semester include: approximate time inside the center—five minutes; number of students tested twice weekly—1,920; 10

number of faculty, staff, and affiliates tested weekly—750; and total tests conducted—54,000. More of the same was anticipated for the spring.

Teamwork makes the testing center tick. Athletics staff and coaches join individuals from Student Life, Health Services, and other offices to keep the operation going round-the-clock, much like a continuous relay race. In the fall, assistant coaches shared responsibilities with courier-service drivers in making 11 weekly car runs (twice each weekday and once on Saturdays) to Cambridge, Massachusetts, delivering samples for processing by the Broad Institute of MIT

and Harvard (in the spring, couriers were expected to do all the driving). Trinity staff spend hours on the phone—following up on test results, conducting contact tracing, and isolating active cases—to limit the spread of the virus and to keep the community safe.

Trinity Athletic Director Drew Galbraith, who with his team oversees the testing center, says, “Creating a positive environment is essential. We’re there being supportive and friendly and helping everyone have a little bit better day. It’s challenging, but everyone understands—we’re in this together, and everybody has an important role to play.”

EDITOR’S NOTE “Trinity Treasure” highlights a person, place, or thing on campus that is just what the name implies: a Trinity treasure. Do you have an idea for what to showcase?

Please send your suggestions to sonya.adams@ trincoll.edu.

THE TRINITY REPORTER

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NSF grad fellowship Trinity College senior Alisa Levin ’21 recently was selected to receive a 2021 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF), which will fund three years of her studies and research work in graduate school. Levin, a computer science major and models and data minor, plans to begin a Ph.D. program in computer science in the fall, focusing on neural computation.

This NSF fellowship recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students who are pursuing fulltime, research-based master’s and doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) or in STEM education and have demonstrated their potential for significant research achievements.

“I’m so excited about this fellowship,” Levin said.

“It means so much to me because it’s hard to get as an undergraduate, when you don’t already have the support of a lab. [It] … will allow me flexibility in my graduate research. It brings me a certain level of autonomy and means I don’t have to be tied to a specific grant.”

As a first-year undergraduate coming to Trinity from New York City, Levin was part of the Interdisciplinary Science Program (ISP), a Gateway Program for top students interested in the sciences.

“Being with a small, close-knit group of students with a shared passion for science and a desire to learn about research was an incredible introduction to college,” Levin said. “Connecting with students who also cared about research, science, and learning was inspiring.”

Alison Draper, director of the ISP and Trinity’s Science Center, noted, “It is very unusual for a student to win a GRF before they begin their graduate work.

The win speaks to Alisa’s incredible intellectual curiosity and hard work.”

Last year, Levin was one of three Trinity juniors to receive the Barry Goldwater Scholarship, awarded to students who wish to pursue careers in the natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering. In addition to her interests in science, Levin is a member of Trinity’s equestrian team.

“At Trinity, what I’ve appreciated most is the level of support I’ve received from all of my professors.

Working in [Professor of Engineering] Taikang Ning’s electrical engineering lab for the last four years has taught me so much about the research process, and my adviser, [Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Associate Professor of Computer Science] Takunari Miyazaki, has supported me every step of the way through my computer science education.

They’ve all helped build my confidence when I needed it and gave me advice that helped me stay on the right path.”

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Resilient river turtles Trinity Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Biology Amber Pitt and two of her students recently published a scientific paper that sheds light on how different threats impact river turtle populations. Based on research they conducted in Ozark County, Missouri, in 2019, the paper can help to inform conservation strategies for river turtles.

Pitt said that turtles are one of the most highly threatened taxonomic groups in the world. The paper, published in the ecology journal Acta Oecologica and titled “Short-term impacts of a record-shattering flood and dam removal on a river turtle assemblage and population placed within the context of a 50 year study,” highlights research that is part of one of the longestrunning turtle studies in the world.

Joining Pitt in her research were environmental science majors Myles Little ’21 and Ellie Tate ’21, a Dorothy A. and Glover Johnson Scholar and a Thomas Fisher Scholar. The three and their co-authors—Trinity Physics and Environmental Laboratory Manager Little and Tate Joseph Tavano and Max A. Nickerson from the University of Florida’s Florida Museum of Natural History—explored how turtles’ population and species composition change over time and in response to shifts in their habitat because of a 1,000-year flood.

Little, Tate, and Pitt worked together as a team. “We snorkeled the North Fork of White River, hand captured the turtles, and collected the data on the turtles and their habitats,” said Pitt. “We also co-authored a presentation which we presented at the prestigious International Congress for Conservation Biology in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on July 23, 2019, as well as this publication.”

Pitt said they found that most of the turtle species were able to cope with the flood. “We also concluded that flooding was less of a threat to the turtle populations than exploitation,” she said. “This means that conservation efforts should focus more on addressing exploitation of turtles.”

She noted that conservation and sustainability are essential topics for her students and her to discuss in their work. “As members of the Trinity College community, we are actively participating in the broader, global conservation and sustainability discussion and process by doing critical research and outreach to ensure effective conservation programs,” said Pitt. “We are demonstrating by example how to be bold, independent thinkers who lead transformative lives and work toward the greater good.”

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THE TRINITY REPORTER

A NEW CURRICULUM FOR A NEW CENTURY

Real-world experiences, wellness program to complement academic core

BY A N D R E W J. C O N C AT E L L I I L LU ST R AT I O N BY ST E P H A N I E DA LT O N C OWA N

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We believe this 21st-century curriculum will prepare Trinity students who are both thinkers and doers.”

So says Sonia Cardenas, acting dean of the faculty and vice president for academic affairs, about the most significant revisions to the Trinity College curriculum in more than a decade. The changes—including the introduction of a broad variety of creditbearing co-curricular experiences and a wellness program—will go into effect in fall 2021 with the incoming Class of 2025.

Fitness classes could satisfy the wellness requirement.

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“The new curriculum reflects so much of what makes Trinity distinctive,” says Cardenas. “It reflects our identity as one of the only selective liberal arts colleges in the country that is also in a capital city, and it highlights the power of a liberal arts education that also takes seriously realworld experiences and overall wellness.”

In the updated curriculum, students will complete 32 core academic credits and three additional credits known as the Trinity Plus, which can include a personalized, exploratory option—with all co-curricular credits, all academic credits, or any combination of both—or a more integrated option through a facultydesigned experiential certificate. The new curriculum also incorporates a wellness requirement, intended to promote personal well-being.

The complex process of revising the curriculum, led by the faculty Curriculum Committee and the Office of the Dean of the Faculty, has taken place over several years, with the changes overwhelmingly approved by the faculty in fall 2019. Associate Dean for Curriculum and Associate Professor of Theater and Dance Mitchell A. Polin ’96, who chaired the Curriculum Committee, says that the new requirements reflect a different approach to learning, with an increased emphasis on experiential components and the need to connect more to a postgraduation world.

“What takes place in the classroom is directly related to what takes place outside of the classroom,” Polin says. “The students carry with them their experiences from the college—internships, fellowships, community partnerships, and research positions—which all contribute to the important conversations taking place

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A co-curricular experience at the Wadsworth Atheneum could satisfy part of the new curriculum’s Trinity Plus.

“ [The new curriculum] … highlights the power of a liberal arts education that also takes seriously real-world experiences and overall wellness.”

S O N I A C A R D E N A S, AC T I N G D E A N O F T H E FAC U LT Y A N D V I C E P R E S I D E N T F O R AC A D E M I C A F FA I R S

in the classroom. This curricular revision acknowledges that they are whole individuals, and we need to treat them as such.”

Working closely with the Dean of the Faculty Office and consulting with students about changes they wanted to see, the Curriculum Committee crafted a detailed proposal motivated by carefully articulated goals. Brendan W. Clark ’21, a double major in public policy and law and history, served as a student member of the committee. “It is difficult to weigh the consequences of a decision, especially an academic one, without having the voice of those who directly experience the academic, curricular, and intellectual fruits of courses,” Clark says. “Student representatives bridge that gap and offer a crucial perspective on how students react to and interact with the curricular changes.”

While some co-curricular learning opportunities in the college’s home city

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of Hartford—including the Legislative Internship Program—already were creditbearing experiences for Trinity students, the new curriculum offers even more ways to earn academic credits outside of the traditional classroom. These include teaching assistantships, peer teaching and mentorships, internships outside the major, summer fellowships, unpaid research with a faculty member, paid summer research, and January Term courses.

“These are ways to link what’s happening at Trinity with the world and a student’s professional aspirations,” Polin says. “Our students are already engaging in a number of activities—service, research, and more— and we believe these activities should count in the students’ education. We can connect the students to Hartford and to the Trinity community through this new curriculum in ways we have not previously done to this extent.”

The experiential certificate—which is one way to earn the Trinity Plus credits—combines integrated sets of courses on a specific topic to prepare students for their next steps after Trinity. Each cohesive certificate program would include at least one academic course and at least one co-curricular activity. Polin says that proposals for experiential certificates were gathered from departments across campus in the winter and spring.

“The opportunity to have a coherent experience is one that’s incredibly exciting,” Polin adds. “Classes taken outside of the major don’t have to be random.

This option can help students think further about how they organize their time at Trinity and connect to what they’re passionate about. We want to make a student’s time at Trinity as dynamic an experience as possible, both inside and outside of the classroom.”

Brendan Lynch ’20, a computer science major who served as a student member of the Curriculum Committee, says

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Internships, such as one at NASA (above), will continue to complement the liberal arts academic core (right).

“ College is obviously about learning and growing intellectually, but it’s also a time for students to learn how to transition to the world beyond our campus and to think deeply about the part they can play in building a caring, responsible community.”

S A R A H B I L STO N , P R O F E SS O R O F E N G L I S H , C U R R I C U LU M C O M M I T T E E M E M B E R

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it’s important that the new curriculum embraces the breadth of experiences of today’s students. “The world changes, and so the curriculum changes with it,” he says, adding that he appreciates that the curriculum will reflect how learning can take place in highly interconnected ways. “The experiential certificate in particular offers an excellent framework that encourages faculty to explore how their areas of expertise interact with the work of colleagues across departmental and divisional lines and allows for students to connect their work in the classroom to life beyond our campus,” he says.

Cardenas notes, “That’s the purpose of the experiential certificate—to bridge academic and co-curricular experiences around a single theme, preparing students

explicitly and in more focused ways for the future of work and community.”

Likewise, it was the idea of embracing a holistic view of students cultivating their best selves in and out of the classroom that led to the wellness program. Polin says that this part of the curriculum will help students establish and sustain positive values, habits, and behaviors during their time at Trinity and beyond. “It’s our hope that the wellness requirement will give students the skills to balance their social, academic, extracurricular, and professional commitments,” he says.

Professor of English Sarah Bilston, a Curriculum Committee member who worked on the wellness program, says that it aims to help students build healthy habits to sustain happy, balanced, and

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THE BASICS

32 3

core academic credits

additional credits— THE TRINITY PLUS meaningful lives. “We hope the requirement will encourage students to make time and space for wellness; they can have fun, try things out, and meet new people,” Bilston says. “College is obviously about learning and growing intellectually, but it’s also a time for students to learn how to transition to the world beyond our campus and to think deeply about the part they can play in building a caring, responsible community.”

The wellness program comprises three categories: Mind, Body, and Spirit; Community Health and Responsibility; and Civic and Environmental Engagement.

“Students will participate in four wellness experiences, including at least one from each of these three categories,” Bilston

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says. Each wellness experience requires a minimum of eight hours of direct engagement and provides an opportunity for student reflection.

Cardenas says she believes that the wellness program and other elements of the new curriculum add up to provide students with an exceptional range of real-world learning that takes place outside of the traditional classroom. “These experiences, alongside their core liberal arts education and our incredible network of global alumni, are what will prepare students for lifelong professional and personal success,” she says.

(co-curricular and/or academic credits or an experiential certificate)

+ Wellness requirement

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THE TRINITY REPORTER

IL LUSTRAT ION: OLG A BO EVA

compelling conversations Virtual alumni events help community members stay in touch

BY K AT H Y A N D R E W S

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In a typical year, many alumni, families, and other members of the Trinity community make their way to campus for different occasions. Family Weekend, Homecoming, and Reunion are among the top draws. Some visit to attend a lecture, performance, or film; participate in a panel discussion; catch up with a professor or coach; accompany a family member on an admissions tour; or cheer on a favorite Bantam team.

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BUT STARTING IN SPRING 2020, when COVID-19 ushered in habits of hunkering down and social distancing, Trinity events had to transition from in person to virtual.

Since then, thousands of members of the Trinity community, regardless of location or time zone, have embraced the opportunities to get together, to learn, and to find a sense of connection by participating through computer screens via Zoom videoconferencing.

AUDIENCE BREAKDOWN

59% alumni

24%

parents

12% students

5%

faculty, staff, friends, others

Varied presentations and topics have included a series on U.S. presidential politics; a discussion of Albert Camus’s The Plague; a conversation between Trinity President Joanne Berger-Sweeney and Kristine Belson ’86, president of Sony Pictures Animation; a series showcasing alumni musicians; a talk with Andrew Aydin ’06, co-author of MARCH: Book Three, the first graphic novel to win the National Book Award; a look at the legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg; and a talk with Kayak founder and CEO Steve Hafner P’22.

Trustee Emeritus Doug Tansill ’61, P’91, ’96 was among hundreds of virtual attendees of “At the Top of Their Game,” with Robin Sheppard M’76, veteran Bantam coach and athletics administrator, moderating a discussion with five alumni from the professional sports realm on how the pandemic has rocked their world, as well as how their Trinity education helped them achieve their professional goals.

“ The world becomes very small when we’re able to all be on a Zoom screen together.”

M I TC H E L L A . P O L I N , A SS O C I AT E D E A N F O R C U R R I C U LU M A N D A SS O C I AT E P R O F E SS O R O F T H E AT E R A N D DA N C E

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“It just made you swell with pride to hear these accomplished alumni talk about their experiences at Trinity being, frankly, as wonderful as mine were,” says Tansill. Panelists included Jay Monahan ’93, commissioner of the Professional Golf Association, and Sam Kennedy ’95, president and CEO of the Boston Red Sox.

Tansill also attended “Hospitality Disrupted,” which focused on how the hospitality and restaurant industry is grappling with COVID-19 challenges. World-renowned restaurateurs David Chang ’99, founder and chef of Momofuku, and Danny Meyer ’80, P’20, founder and CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group, joined moderator John Molner ’85, co-founder and CEO of KCM Media.

“Obviously they’re at the epicenter of industries dramatically and negatively impacted by the virus,” Tansill says of Chang and Meyer. “The discussion was terrific and really fun.” At one point, journalist Katie Couric, who is married to Molner, Zoombombed the conversation.

She popped in to say hi and to tease her husband, noting how nervous he had been to preside over the discussion.

Steve Donovan, Trinity’s director of alumni relations, said that as of April 1, 2021, live attendance for virtual events surpassed 5,700 total audience members; 45 percent of the individuals had not attended a Trinity event in person in the previous five years. “We’ve expanded on our traditional attendance, including significant participation from alums overseas,” says Donovan.

The audience is continually growing, too, as recordings of the virtual presentations are viewed by thousands more via Trinity’s website. A search for “Virtual Long Walk” provides access to the presentation archive and other content intended to help Trinity community members stay connected.

“The ease with which people can attend the events from the comfort of their homes or offices is a big part of the positive feedback we’ve had,” says Donovan. “Also, people have been blown away by the talent of the speakers. The remote format makes it a bit easier for some very busy, high-profile folks to share their stories virtually instead of in person.”

After attending “The College Admissions Landscape in a COVID-19 World,” Jessica Lockhart Vincent ’98 felt better informed to help her son with the college search process. “The biggest thing was hearing how much it has changed

THE TRINITY REPORTER

from what I went through 20-something years ago, including how many schools now are test-optional,” says Vincent, who lives in Yardley, Pennsylvania.

Vincent says one concern she had was how pandemic restrictions have limited sports and extracurricular opportunities. But Adrienne Amador Oddi, dean of admissions and financial aid, and Julia Naclerio ’08, M’20, associate director of college counseling at the King School, shared alternate ways for students to demonstrate goal setting and productive use of their time. “They described one applicant who, when lockdown happened, decided they were going to watch the top 100 movies of all time,” says Vincent. “I would never have thought of that as something that would be appealing in an admissions application. It really helped me adjust my thinking.”

For Barbara Johnson M’89, a selfdescribed “proponent of lifelong learning and the use of technology” who lives in South Dakota, the virtual events have reconnected her with Trinity, where she earned a master’s in English. A humanities scholar, Johnson has attended several virtual events, including a Trinity College Chapel service.

Johnson remembers attending the Festival of Lessons and Carols in the Chapel every winter when she lived in Connecticut, and the virtual Chapel gathering brought back the feeling of being part of the campus community.

“Regardless of whether you were studying literature or science, that sense of us all being together came up in my memory during the service. I thought of all those really neat people at Trinity; it was a good community, and we all worked together.”

Donovan says that some virtual events, notably “Alumni Leaders Building Stronger Communities,” have been moving, with attendees commenting—either by live chat during the event or by email afterward—on how poignant the discussion was. “The panel with alumni leaders of nonprofit organizations really tugged at your heartstrings because it followed on the heels of all the social and racial injustice issues that came to the forefront this summer. The panelists all told raw and emotional stories and how those

Left: Adrienne Amador Oddi, Trinity’s dean of admissions and financial aid, in “The College Admissions Landscape in a COVID-19 World; below: Tom Safran ’67 in “Right at Home: How One Trinity Alum Built a Career in Real Estate Development and Affordable Housing”; bottom: Associate Professor of Legal and Policy Studies Renny Fulco, Youlan Xiu ’15, and Thursday Williams ’23 in “The Transformative Legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg”

experiences impact the work they do,” says Donovan.

During the discussion, which dealt with the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and systemic racism, panelist Karraine Moody ’01 addressed her personal experience as a parent raising Black children in America. She also spoke of Trinity experiences and mentors who helped lead her to “fulfill my purpose” in her work as the CEO of Hartford Area Habitat for Humanity.

“It was such a healthy conversation, taking place in a nonjudgmental zone,” says Moody. “There are some real down-to-earth but critical conversations being held on Trinity’s platform. It speaks to the gravity of the college,” she adds. “We might be a small liberal arts college, but we come with such power, we come with such influence, in having these conversations.”

While many of the virtual events are spearheaded by Donovan and colleagues in the Advancement Office, others are produced or co-sponsored by academic departments and centers and by alumni organizations. For many events, extensive technical support was provided by Information Technology Services, says Donovan.

“I think there will always be a need for and benefits from in-person events,” says Donovan. “But we’ve recognized just how effective a medium this is, and I expect we’ll continue with virtual event programming long beyond the pandemic.”

Mitchell A. Polin ’96, associate dean for curriculum and associate professor of theater and dance, says an especially timely virtual talk with a robust

question-and-answer session was “The Vaccine Pipeline,” in which Kari Sweeney Efferon ’03, associate director at Pfizer, addressed both the challenges and cautious processes that figured into accelerated development of a COVID-19 vaccine.

“What we’ve seen from alumni participation is that it’s primarily people who have an interest in learning,” says Polin. “And that’s the greatest compliment Trinity could ever get, to have an alumni group that’s excited to be part of an academic conversation and wants to engage important, sometimes difficult, questions.”

Polin notes that alumni from many different class years and from around the country and the world are participating in the virtual events based on their interests in topics and presenters. Says Polin: “The world becomes very small when we’re able to all be on a Zoom screen together.”

↗ To view past presentations, please visit commons.trincoll.edu/Reporter.

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Fay Stetz-Waters IDP’01, director of civil rights, Oregon Department of Justice

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fairness Focus on

Fay StetzWaters IDP’01 works to ensure Oregonians’ civil rights ST O RY BY M A RY H OWA R D P H O T O S BY K AT H RY N E L S E S S E R

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hen she was a child, Fay StetzWaters IDP’01 was often blamed for her twin sister’s antics—like the time her sister broke StetzWaters’s sunglasses by sitting on them. “Before I could say a word, she tattled to my mom, saying, ‘Look what sissy did!’ ” When Stetz-Waters professed her innocence, her mother ignored her. “My mom was pretty strict, and if she couldn’t identify who did it, it was usually me, the outspoken one, who got in trouble,” she says. “I spent a lot of time in punishment, alone in my room, thinking about fairness.”

These childhood experiences laid the foundation for Stetz-Waters’s sense of justice and foreshadowed her career as a lawyer and judge. Now, as director of civil rights for Oregon’s Department of Justice, she works on issues that impact the state’s most vulnerable citizens.

Her responsibilities include advising state agencies and defending state actions that involve the people’s rights, such as access to clean water and health care and the ability to earn money.

“If there is an equity piece missing from any legislation, I’ll work with the [state’s] attorney general to get that added in if I can,” she says.

Outreach is important to StetzWaters, and she creates opportunities for people in her state to speak up and be heard. Last summer, she facilitated Oregon’s Community Conversations, a series of roundtable discussions that give people affected by inequity opportunities to share their experiences of hate and discrimination. The program has led to substantive governmental changes, including increased culturally specific resources for crime victims. She also manages a Bias Response Hotline for Oregonians to report bias incidents and crimes, the first in the country to focus on the needs of the people, she says.

Stetz-Waters also advocates for change on a national level and coordinated Oregon’s response to

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a multistate lawsuit that challenges changes to the U.S. Department of Labor’s joint-employer rule. The rule, part of the Fair Labor Standards Act, defines who or what is considered an employer. Until January 2020, the rule stated that an employer must be held accountable to its workers for minimum wage, overtime, and child labor protection, whether the workers are engaged directly by the corporation or through an intermediary.

But last year, the Labor Department made changes to the law that would leave workers vulnerable. In September 2020, 18 states, including Oregon, sued to stop implementation of the rule.

Though she has achieved a highlevel of success, Stetz-Waters’s journey was not easy. She grew up in Baltimore in the 1980s, amid rampant violence. Her mother suffered from an undiagnosed mental illness, and her father died during her senior year of high school.

With her mother “checked out” and her father sick, she enrolled herself in Western High School, one of the country’s oldest public all-girls’ secondary schools. “It was a place where academics were taken seriously, where I could see what a college trajectory looked like,” she says.

After graduation, with no money for college, she joined the Marine Corps and pursued her education at her own pace. “I have never bought into the idea of late starts. People are on their own trajectory,” she says.

Though Stetz-Waters enjoyed working as a field radio operator in the Marines, her outspokenness meant she often was “moved around.”

She notes, “Women who complained of sexual harassment were reassigned, and investigations of sexual harassment were minimal. People like me, who spoke out about racism and sexism, were [also] reassigned.”

After four years, she decided not to reenlist. “This was before ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ and I was in a relationship with a woman,” she says. When her partner moved to Connecticut, Stetz-Waters went, too, and began working as a 911 dispatcher for the Manchester Police Department.

She also studied at Manchester Community College. “I was enjoying education as an exercise, taking a bunch of classes,” she says. Her intellectual

THE TRINITY REPORTER

curiosity and high GPA caught the attention of an administrator, who suggested she try for a scholarship to a four-year school.

Stetz-Waters says she chose Trinity because of its excellent reputation. And as a self-supporting student in the Individualized Degree Program, the college’s location near her employer was a plus. She worked nights at the police department and took a full course load during the day, majoring in history.

“I would finish my shift, drive to Trinity, and sleep in my car for an hour before classes started. Then I would go home, sleep for a couple of hours, and go to work.” She did this for two years before graduating with honors.

Along the way, she says, she benefited from Trinity’s talented and encouraging faculty. She credits her adviser, Barbara Sicherman, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of American Institutions and Values, Emerita, with teaching her how to dig deeper in her research and analysis of materials. During her senior year, she served as a teaching assistant for former history faculty member Jeff Roche’s class on the 1960s, which strengthened her interest in civil rights.

One of her favorite courses was “Protest in Music,” taught by Professor of Music Gail Woldu. “It’s where I first heard Debussy and Ravel, and it gave me an appreciation for rap and hip hop that I didn’t have,” says Stetz-Waters.

Though they’ve had no contact in 20 years, Woldu remembers Stetz-Waters for her keen insight during a class discussion. After listening to a recording of Ma Rainey’s “Prove It on Me Blues”—with the refrain, “Went out last night with a crowd of my friends. They must have been women, ’cause I don’t like no men”— Stetz-Waters made an observation that even Woldu hadn’t considered.

“We had been arguing about the boldness of such a line and the boldness of a record company … to market a song about lesbianism,” says Woldu.

Stetz-Waters suggested that the record company was bold because they knew it had an audience of lesbian listeners who understood. “She helped us see a potential market for music outside the mainstream,” says Woldu. “I use her comment every time I teach that piece.”

After Trinity, Stetz-Waters earned a J.D. in 2005 from Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, where she wrote about marriage equality, transgender rights, and crime victims’ rights. Her first job out of law school was for Legal Aid of Oregon, where she provided representation for underserved residents of Linn and Benton Counties. “She has a heart for the most vulnerable people,” says Mitzi Naucler, who was her supervisor at Legal Aid. The two remain close, and Naucler has enjoyed watching the growth of her friend’s career.

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Over the years, Stetz-Waters has served as an administrative law judge for the Oregon Employment Department, a hearings officer for the state’s Board of Parole, and a circuit court judge in Linn County. She began working at the Oregon Department of Justice in 2019, and Naucler says it is a position for which StetzWaters is particularly suited. “She’s not a pushover, but she isn’t unpleasant to anyone,” says Naucler. She says she feels that Stetz-Waters’s civility in the face of conflict is particularly necessary right now, with the country so divided.

Stetz-Waters’s wife of 22 years, writer Karelia StetzWaters, agrees. “Though she is very passionate about civil rights, she is very rational when others get polarized. She always sees both sides and strives for the middle ground,” she says.

Stetz-Waters’s work in law enforcement has informed her position on one particularly polarizing issue: police reform. As a 911 dispatcher, she saw what police officers experience. “There are mentalhealth risks that occur [when officers] repeatedly respond to people in crisis, take lives, and see death.

It can make you see the worst in people, rob you of your compassion, and leave you viewing people as threats instead of humans,” she says.

Instead of defunding police, she advocates for rewarding officers who establish a rapport with those in their community and providing anti-bias and equity training to all, not just a select few.

“Her integrity, her ethical compass, and her passion for justice paired with her incredible work ethic really is changing our state for the better,” says Karelia Stetz-Waters. “I hope more people follow in her footsteps.”

“ Though she is very passionate about civil rights, she is very rational when others get polarized. She always sees both sides and strives for the middle ground.”

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M

ust a dance concert be presented on a stage? Must a rehearsal be held in a studio?

With large performance halls on campus shuttered and rehearsal studios converted into classrooms last fall during the COVID-19 pandemic, Trinity College’s Theater and Dance Department confronted the challenge of how to create art and present it to an audience without gathering groups of people in person.

So exactly where can dancing take place?

For two faculty members, the answer is simple: everywhere.

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“It’s time to think and dance outside of the box!”

That’s how Assistant Professor of Theater and Dance Peter Kyle and Assistant Professor of Theater and Dance Rebecca K. Pappas pitched their idea for “Dancing Everywhere,” the yearlong performance project that began in fall 2020 as part of their THDN-309 “Stage Production” course. “ ‘Dancing Everywhere’ is a think tank for movement and performance experiments that began by developing ideas in a creative laboratory,” Kyle says. Students and their professors worked on site-specific performances, dances for the camera and for Zoom, and any other means by which members of the class could dance together while remaining apart. “Our goal was to make a big show, knowing that it would have to likely exist in a variety of different platforms that we wouldn’t otherwise think of as venues,” Kyle says. “We turned Zoom and all our spaces into rehearsal halls. We have gone beyond the studio and have made the leap to thinking about dance as being able to occur in other places.”

Pappas adds, “ ‘Dancing Everywhere’ refers to site-specific, nontraditional spaces, but it also means dancing together in digital space, in virtual ways, and in analogue spaces that digital portals take us to—in our homes, dorm rooms, the lobbies of buildings.”

The uncertainty of whether any kind of live performance would be possible during the pandemic turned the focus away from the final product and inward toward the process. “It was really just about dancing all the time, no matter where,” she says. “You’re not in rehearsal for something else, you’re just doing it now, and we’re all doing it together. That’s a different way to think about what a performance is and what a rehearsal is.”

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Far left: Assistant Professor of Theater and Dance Peter Kyle with students; left: Assistant Professor of Theater and Dance Rebecca Pappas; above: Ugnė Tumonytė ’24

“ Our goal was to make a big show, knowing that it would have to likely exist in a variety of different platforms that we wouldn’t otherwise think of as venues.”

P E T E R K Y L E , A SSI STA N T PR O F ESS O R O F THEATER A N D DANC E

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The class met in person outdoors and remotely via Zoom to work on studentand faculty-designed performance pieces.

An open rehearsal held on the Main Quad and online in November showcased the work in progress, followed by a final performance in the spring. Working collectively on pieces allowed the parallel development of dances that took different formats, including short films, projection, and live outdoor performances.

“Normally a concert would have six pieces in a program on the stage,” Pappas says. “This year, the pieces are all different.” Kyle’s piece involving slow-tempo movement used the Main Quad as its venue, while Pappas filmed memoryinspired dances in the Crescent Center for Arts and Neuroscience.

Associate Professor of Theater and Dance Michael Preston, chair of the department, says that he appreciates the adaptability of Pappas and Kyle’s project, which adjusted to changing weather conditions and to heightened campus alert levels that occasionally precluded any in-person work. “Rebecca and Peter had a great concept because we wanted to do some type of performance, but we needed to stay nimble,” Preston says. “I think they came up with a nice approach to still do dance at this time without putting the

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OTHER DEPARTMENT PROJECTS “Performing Hartford” Pappas partnered this year with Jasmin Agosto ’10 of SageSeeker Productions to create this Community Learning course and performance series connecting students with Hartford artists through discussions, virtual performances, and question-and-answer sessions.

“This was a great approach to the community building that I think we’re going to need more of going forward,” Preston says.

InterArts Gateway Preston invited artists from around the world to talk to students in the first-year program about what it is to be an artist. Students met remotely and created their own art. “They forged this incredible community,” Preston says of the students. “They encouraged each other to be more honest and more generous as a class than I’ve ever seen.”

Quarantine Complex “Director Terrell Sledge’s docu-style performance project looks at the pandemic and its effect on us,” says Preston. “Students interviewed real people in the fall and are creating a final spring project that’s partly filmed and partly happening live. It’s using the current limitations to see what else we can do and flex some other muscles. I hope the flame that makes me love theater—and makes our students love it—is still flickering, being fanned at times, and will come out even stronger when we get through this.”

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pressure on having to be in person. We are all learning to embrace flexibility.”

The unique approach to this course also offered a structure like no other. It met for four hours on Friday afternoons, giving class members time to warm up and become deeply immersed. Ugne˙ Tumonyte˙ ’24 says, “I would always look forward to Fridays. It was my last class of the week, and it would feel so good and so freeing after being confined to my computer space all week. Everybody in ‘Dancing Everywhere’ was just so happy to be there and was willing to experiment with what dancing is. I think of it as a kind of escape, like a safe place and a happy place to go to.”

As a first-year student, Tumonyte˙ says, the project helped her connect with peers at a time when interactions were limited and introduced her to new possibilities in the field of dance. “I had only done dances on a stage with live audiences. With Zoom, you don’t have to think about the stage but about the screen,” she says. “My project looked into how movement could appear different from different angles of the camera. I would never have thought of that if it wasn’t for COVID. I learned so much from this project—and I had never danced outside before! This changed my perspective of dance, even though I’ve been doing it for a long time.”

With only six students in the class, Kyle says, the collaborative atmosphere encouraged student agency and creative inquiry. “I was impressed by the level of ownership they brought to their work and how individual it was. They seemed

genuinely free to experiment,” he says.

Even though many students had never choreographed anything before, the typical hierarchy of a studio seemed to blur, with community building coming to the forefront, and students leading the work on their own pieces.

“Everybody could create their own piece in their own process. There wasn’t a ‘correct’ process,” says Clare Donohoe ’22. “My piece was focusing on the little joys of quarantine, with a film focusing on isolated, specific parts of the body.

I gave everyone a framework of what I wanted them to do, but then they could improvise their own dance,” she says.

“Having 10 weeks to create one piece was really freeing. It was a great experience and was helpful to have a way to express myself in these times.”

Instead of dwelling on limitations, the project’s participants embraced new opportunities. “It’s so easy, during the pandemic, to focus on what we can’t do: we can’t be on a stage, we can’t be together as much as we’d like,” Pappas says. “ ‘Dancing Everywhere’ explored what do we have? What is possible?”

Adds Kyle, “Rebecca and I share a delight in dance as an expression of movement writ large, not limited by what people think qualifies as dance or where it should occur. This project blasts open the notion of where dance is expected to occur. Dancing is living.

Maybe the project is asking, when aren’t we dancing?”

“ It’s so easy, during the pandemic, to focus on what we can’t do: we can’t be on a stage, we can’t be together as much as we’d like. ‘Dancing Everywhere’ explored what do we have? What is possible?”

R EBECCA PAPPAS, ASSISTANT PROFE SSOR OF TH E ATE R AND DANC E

THE TRINITY REPORTER

Caroline Frederick ’24, a John and Gertrude Donovan Term Scholar

S P R I N G 2021

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Trinity’s Women’s Leadership Council energizes alumnae

BY T E S S DU D E K- RO L O N

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B O LD F RO M I T S S TA RT—on the heels of the college’s 40th anniversary of coeducation in 2010—Trinity’s Women’s Leadership Council (WLC) continues to focus on a clear mission: shape the future of the college and give a voice to Trinity women through the work of motivated alumnae. Now, just a few years before the college celebrates its bicentennial, the WLC has become an even more active, energetic, and ambitious force in the Trinity community, both on and off campus.

THE TRINITY REPORTER

The original idea for the WLC came from founding members Emily Latour Bogle ’79, Nina McNeely Diefenbach ’80, P’18, Cornelia Parsons Thornburgh ’80, and WLC Chair Patricia “Trish” Mairs Klestadt ’80 P ’09 ’11. “The WLC was formed to amplify the women’s voice in Trinity’s affairs and network with recently graduated women and those about to graduate,” says Thornburgh, who this month retires from her role as chair of Trinity’s Board of Trustees. “We have such talent among us.”

The four women found a contingent of alumnae eager to come together. “Our goal was to engage alumnae in ways the college hadn’t before,” says Bogle. When she graduated, the college had been coed for several years, “but there was still a gender imbalance.” The WLC was a way to nurture relationships with one another and with Trinity. For Bogle, the WLC was a place “to have the fellowship and camaraderie with other women and to share experiences, whether it was what we learned at Trinity or things we’ve taken into the world. A lot of it was just for us to get together and engage. And the other part was trying to help the college, by giving back and mentoring.”

establishing the Marjorie Butcher Circle, a new group focused on philanthropic leadership.

In many ways, the WLC is defined by the generosity of spirit of its members, who share so much with the college and with one another. Diefenbach, a former trustee, says, “Having a place where women can talk about how they want to give to the college and affect the student body is so important. They’re giving in their own right—they have a place where they can address the needs of the college and demonstrate impact.”

Bogle underscores that the WLC is about fostering ties within the community. “We are here to stay connected with each other and stay connected with the college, to help the school and give back,” she says.

“Everybody is welcome.”

LIFTING EVERY VOICE

In only 10 years, this sense of service has developed into robust programming that is responsive to the ever-evolving needs of women of the college. For example, the WLC was involved in developing the Venture Trinity program, which brings first-year female students together with alumnae. The WLC also has created local, informal connections for women at any stage in their working life. The group has hosted more than 250 events, including hikes in Boston with alumnae and a Trinity biology professor, brown-bag lunches for public policy professionals in Washington, D.C., and partnerships with Trinity groups including the Society of Women Engineers and the Women and Gender Resource Action Center.

Klestadt, who has served as WLC chair since the group’s inception, says one of the group’s achievements that made her particularly proud was working with members to create a scholarship fund. The WLC recently named its second female scholar.

The group also has the power to inspire.

In 2019, a handful of alumnae who recognized and appreciated WLC programming sought to celebrate Trinity women by

Recently, the WLC began the process of ensuring that the sentiment about all being welcome rings true for everyone in the Trinity community. In June 2020, after the murder of George Floyd brought racial justice into stark relief across the country, the WLC took account of its membership and purpose. Among the 728 members of the WLC, 18.5 percent are women of color.

The months to come were an opportunity to address critical concerns and recommendations for representation, programming, and governance of the WLC. For all members, it was a moment of reflection. “We had to step back and do a lot of listening,” says Klestadt. Born from that moment is a new WLC working group dedicated to creating diversity, equity, and inclusion within the larger organization and promoting these values at the college.

Shakira Ramos Crespo ’02 is leading this effort, working with alumnae women of color and allies to forge a path forward to lift all women’s voices—including those of women in the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities.

In January, the WLC held its first event tailored to alumnae of color, “Breaking the Silence: Amplifying Our Voices: A Conversation for Women of Color with Dr. Yndia Lorick-Wilmot ’99.” Ramos Crespo says she’s hopeful about the future of the WLC. “We’re honest that we don’t have all the answers right now, but we are working on this. I’ve been very honored to lead this group because it shows the power of the amazing women who have come out of the

S P R I N G 2021

*($1.7M+ to Trinity College Fund, $550,000+ in restricted gifts)

BUILDING A NETWORK

college, and we want to see it succeed and move forward in a way that’s more inclusive and open-minded.”

In its commitment to equity, the WLC has leveraged what is perhaps its most powerful asset—the voices of its members.

“We were able to have an open and honest discussion, and the DEI group came together from what the WLC members were talking about and feeling at the moment,” says Ramos Crespo, who on July 1, 2021, will take over as WLC co-chair alongside Julie Mancuso Gionfriddo ’96, M’05.

OVERCOMING ADVERSITY, TOGETHER

During COVID-19 times, the WLC’s responsiveness was again valuable, thanks to existing support systems for Trinity women in their home cities and nationally through WLC virtual programming.

BY THE NUMBERS The pandemic has disproportionately impacted women’s employment, accordMILLION total donated ing to U.S. Bureau of to Trinity in FY20* Labor Statistics, and the deeply connected network of working professionals in the of members gave to Trinity in FY20 WLC, who span a multigenerational range of experience, has become an even more programs since 2010 important venue for finding support.

Karen Fink Kupferberg ’73, P’07, a member of the first fully coeducational undergraduate class at Trinity, also is a member of the WLC. In a moment when issues on the minds of alumnae may be drastically different from what they were a year ago, she says, “The challenges of women in the workplace are not diminished by the progress we’ve made. There continues to be a benefit to the WLC as a place to have these conversations. It’s important to have a safe place.”

$2.3 47%

250+

↗

For more on the WLC, please visit commons.trincoll.edu/Reporter.

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Trinity gave Neil Pfanstiel ’38 the ability to grow intellectually throughout his life, and the scholarship he established with his bequest ensures that current and future students will have that same opportunity.

“I knew that I could study multiple subjects over my four years at Trinity. In the spirit of the liberal arts, most students I know are double majors, often in two subjects that seemingly have nothing to do with each other! I am grateful for my scholarship, as it has given me the opportunity to put all of my focus into my academic studies while at college.”

—Vanessa ’21, biology major and classical antiquity minor

“My main aspirations revolve around establishing a law career, but I also find politics as an important pathway toward making helpful change available to the American people. … My scholarship motivates me to learn as much as I can and build the path for the career I choose to have for myself.”

—Kent ’23, public policy and law major, with concentrations in law and society

and human rights and international policy

To learn more about bequests and other planned gifts, contact Linda M. Minoff, director of gift planning.

860-297-5353 linda.minoff@trincoll.edu

CLASS NOTES WE’RE SEEKING NOTES FROM THOSE WHO GRADUATED PRIOR TO 1952.

Email julie.cloutier@ trincoll.edu or sonya. adams@trincoll.edu!

REUNION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $25,000 Class Secretary: Rev. Finley Schaef, 87 Stoll Rd., Saugerties, NY 124773022; finley.schaef.1952@trincoll.edu • Class Agent: Vacant From Bob O’Brien: “So, when we weren’t looking, most of us turned 90 this year. I had just finally learned how to spell octogenarian. Now I have to work on nonagenarian. At first, I thought that it was spelled ‘nonogenarian,’ which made sense since the first four letters are ‘no no’ and the word is defined as a person who, having reached the age of 90, is no longer allowed to do anything he or she enjoyed doing in prior years. Oh well, I never thought I would like to try skydiving anyway. My son Steve died suddenly of a heart attack at age 54, far too young. He and his little dog, Bubba, a rescue dog with a Napoleon complex, had been staying with me in the house that my late wife, Ceil, and I had bought before he was born. Steve did everything—cooked, mowed the lawn, cleaned the house—everything. After his death, my daughter Bobbie and her husband, Al, were very generous in filling the gap, coming from Simsbury a couple times a week, and my daughter Jane regularly traveled from the Boston area to help out, but it was clear this couldn’t go on forever. I looked at Bubba, and he quickly barked out his unwillingness to take over the household chores, so I sold the house and moved into a two-bedroom apartment across town. The second bedroom is not for Bubba—he rules the entire roost. The room is where I keep all the stuff—books and

1952

S P R I N G 2021

mementos from my 40 years of teaching and coaching at Kingswood Oxford mostly—that I couldn’t get rid of. My housemate Bubba is both a comfort and a nuisance. He barks at every noise he hears, real or imagined, and saves his best and loudest barks for the mail carrier. Just for him, he also throws in a few growls. These days, I spend most of my time listening to lectures from The Great Courses.

I even tried the course in calculus and am ashamed to admit that I still don’t understand it. I also listen to audiobooks (I have AMD, so reading is difficult) as well as DVDs from PBS that are interesting.”

1953

Trinity Fund Goal: $55,000 Class Secretary: Stanley R. McCandless Jr., 3712 Rice Blvd., Houston, TX 77005-2824; stanley.mccandless.1953 @trincoll.edu • Class Agent: Joseph B. Wollenberger, Esq. Once again, “ ‘The time has come,’ the Walrus said, ‘to talk of many things: of shoes, and ships, and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings.’ ” The first above all is what we, members of the Trinity College Class of 1953, have been doing recently and in the past. Anytime during the year, I’m ready to receive a note via mail (3712 Rice Blvd., Houston, TX 77005), phone (713-669-1830), or email (stanmac1@ sbcglobal.net).

Bill Bernhard wrote, “Made it to age 90.

Not sure how much longer, as I have IPF. Still fishing and hunting. Hope to travel some this year.”

Joe Wollenberger wrote, “Hi, Stan: Like all good citizens, we are regularly tested for COVID-19 and will be vaccinated next week.

So far, all is well. Mostly we are staying inside except for necessary trips to the market, bank, etc. We are catching up on lots of good old movies we have not seen in years.

Great fun! And we regularly repeat, as old folks normally do, ‘They don’t make them like that anymore.’ Hope you are well and happy as one can be these days.”

Tex Coulter wrote, “Hi, Stan. Don’t have much to say, but here goes. The COVID virus has limited the activities of all of us, including Pat and me. Our daily routine consists of reading, walking, grocery shopping, and TV. We talk to our family and friends a lot, listen to the Sunday church service online, keep the birds fed, haul the garbage to the compost pile in the backyard, go to the transfer station, attend doctor’s appointments, and hit

the sack at 10:30 p.m. What more can I say?

Since I’m 89 years young and have a chronic health issue, I qualify to receive a vaccine. To find a dispenser is another matter. Wish the Class of ’53 success in navigating through the pandemic. Think of the good times we had at school. It will make you feel better. Best to all.”

I talked to Jack North on the phone. He sounded great but told me about getting over a tick bite early last fall. He thinks he picked it up working in the garden with his son. He was in the hospital for 20 days and had to do some rehab after that. His ski instructor neighbor says the snow is the best she has ever seen, but the temperature has not gotten out of the single digits. His granddaughter is a junior and loves Trinity, works in the café in the library, and thinks that her first-floor suite in Jarvis is the best. Jack suspects it is the same suite that he, Joe, Tex, and your secretary occupied during our 65th Reunion.

Sal and I, like the rest of you, have been dealing with COVID-19. We are fortunate to have gotten our first shots two weeks ago.

Our lifestyle has not changed, but it gives us a secure feeling. Sal shops early Monday morning for groceries every other week. She works from home updating teacher-training materials for Neuhaus (teaching students with dyslexia). Our Rotary Club is meeting once a week via Zoom. West University Place Senior Services Board is meeting via Zoom.

I try to work out twice a week. I have two Zoom classes—“Domestic Problems” once a month, and “Foreign Problems” once a week—for an hour and a half each. We have made no travel plans for this summer. I will be 91 on February 19. My very best to all of my classmates, Stan.

1954

Trinity Fund Goal: $40,000 Class Secretary: Robert A. Wolff, 527 26th St., Santa Monica, CA 904023145; robert.wolff.1954@trincoll.edu • Class Agent: Alexander J. Campbell II My classmates failed the spring 2021 Reporter exam, except Gordon West, previous class secretary. No notes, no updates. I received my first vaccine and am awaiting the second one. The news I have to report is the loss of two of our classmates. Janet Goodhart contacted me about the loss of her husband, Bill Goodhart, on Thanksgiving after lengthy battles with multiple illnesses. Janet can be reached at janetgoodhart@gmail.com.

Dave Mackay passed away last July. Dave was a pianist extraordinaire and one of the first blind graduates of Trinity. His further studies and musical influences were with Margaret Chaloff, Bill Evans, and Lennie Tristano. In the 1960s, he played with the Don Ellis Orchestra and a variety of other artists, including Bill Henderson and Lori Bell.

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CL ASS N OT E S

He also performed with Sonny Stitt, Chet Baker, Bobby Hackett, and Kai Winding. I was lucky to hear Dave play many times at the bar at the Heublein Hotel, sometimes accompanying Ray Moylan. A few years ago, a group of us alumni gathered to hear Dave play at a Beverly Hills hotel.

I hope all are well, getting their shots, and planning on jotting down a note for the next Reporter.

1955

Trinity Fund Goal: $55,000 Class Secretary: E. Wade Close Jr., 65 Shoreline Drive, Hilton Head Island, SC 29928-7139; wade.close.1955@trincoll.edu; fax: 412-820-7572 All of you know the start of the classic A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Well, writing this issue of our Class Notes in the midst of the ongoing pandemic, we are surely experiencing one of the worst of times of our generation.

We have lost several of our Bantam buddies over the past 12 months, some from the hideous coronavirus, starting with Fred Starr way back last April 2020. Our latest victim is John Hodge, who passed this past January.

He was in a nursing home but was doing well until COVID-19 invaded the facility. His obituary gave detail about his love of singing and specifically mentioned his participating as a tenor for the Trinity Pipes. John and wife Nina settled in the Syracuse area after his successful career as a senior auditor in the insurance industry. Connie and David Dimling successfully fought the dreaded disease (including a week in the hospital for David), but they are considered survivors today. Personally, as a member of a 275-person retirement community, I have been quarantined twice (two weeks each) because I had been near individuals who had tested positive. So where is this “best of times”?

During the past 12 months, I have been in contact with more Trinity classmates than any previous year. I phone visit with Don Mountford almost weekly and regularly chat with Tom Bolger, Bob Freeman, John D’Luhy, Irwin Meiselman, Charlie Gardner, Frank Cerveny, and Craig Mehldau. I have discovered Chuck Leonard is alive and well, and we have been in touch at least a dozen times over the past two months. What joy to reconnect with a long-lost classmate. Recently having moved to Huntsville, Alabama, Chuck contacted me, searching for the necessary info so he could have phone reunions with Hank Scheinberg, Lou Magelaner, and Bob Welsh. It is indeed the best of times to reconnect with old friends and to share sweet memories.

Tom Bolger is reliving his past by being a regular disc jockey on station WLHA in Madison, Wisconsin. Every Saturday from

36

noon to 2:00 p.m. (his time zone), spinning the great music from the ’40s and ’50s.

Starting with his experience and popularity on WRTC, he has not lost his touch for interesting commentary, put forth with a smooth professional personality, plus constructing a well-planned radio musical show. Google WLHA some Saturday, and catch Tom in action. His kids have been in touch with Guinness World Records, and it might be that Tom is the oldest active disc jockey in America or even in the world.

Craig Mehldau’s son, Brad, continues to amaze his contemporaries as the 2019 Grammy Award winner for classical piano.

He has generated a vinyl record of his newly composed music and has proceeded to produce the platter; sold 1,200 for $1,000 each and gave total proceeds to a fund to assist out-of-work musicians. Wow! The best of times also has been generated by classmates deciding it is the time to move to be closer to sons and daughters and the bonus of watching grandchildren grow. Bob and Jean Freeman have relocated to the Raleigh area and couldn’t be happier.

They can literally walk to their daughter’s home. In the process of moving near family, Greg Petrakis has identified Charlottesville, Virginia. Barbara and Irwin Meiselman probably will settle in the Philadelphia area, where their daughter resides; she is an M.D., plus the mother of two grandchildren in local medical schools. This will give me a chance to see Irwin, along with Phil Truitt and Dave Roberts, when I’m there to visit my brother, who resides in a North Philadelphia nursing home. Bob Riley lives in Goodwin House in Falls Church, Virginia. In the 500-resident facility, he is near two sons and four grandkids.

One final note: It is truly the best of times when we can reflect on a classmate such as Fred Starr. He was the epitome of what a good friend is and does. He became a leader within our alumni group and succeeded in everything where others counted on his leadership. He and wife Sue lived for many years in Greensboro, North Carolina, and Fred’s significant involvement in local not-for-profit organizations and political community efforts was almost countless (he couldn’t say no). To say he was a successful businessman almost would be misleading.

His leadership resulted in the tripling of sales for a major corporation; he was asked by the mayor of Greensboro to run its annual PGA golf classic. After “retiring,” he accepted the board chair position of the Eastern Music Festival orchestra and led it through a recession rebuilding effort, literally saving the organization. The EMF maestro reflected that Fred was “extraordinary, brilliant, thoughtful, a gentleman, and a friend to the entire

EMF family.” It is the best of times for ’55ers to give thanks we had a friend and classmate named Fred Starr.

REUNION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $75,000 Class Secretary: Bruce N. Macdonald, Stonehouse Farm, 1036 Zollmans Mill Rd., Rte. 4, Lexington, VA 24450-7265; bruce.macdonald.1956@ trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Tom Guertin, Edward A. Montgomery Jr., David Renkert, David M. Taylor, Henry M. Zachs Rodney Smith wrote that he is persevering during the pandemic by competing in national pickleball championships, all while living in the California desert. What triumphs? Our Rod won silver in the USA National Pickleball Championships last November as well as a gold medal in doubles for seniors over 80. In addition, he has improved his golf handicap significantly.

Bravo, Rod. Our man in London, Don Anderson, came home for part of last summer. He reports that the trip was difficult, thanks to the controls needed for the pandemic. Don had to deal with chaos, delayed flights, and cancellations. Yet, despite all the above, he is glad he did it, spending quality time at his summer cottage in Vermont.

Skip Beardsell called me in late October— partly as the result of my email being hacked and partly to catch up—and we both enjoyed it. He reports that he and wife Libby are in good health and are living a quiet life in Clinton, New York. He remains active with the EMT group in his town, but they don’t call him out for night duty since he is said to be the oldest EMT in the county. We talked of our mutual love of Martha’s Vineyard, where he once owned a house. Last year, he took a pleasant trip with Viking Cruises, boating on the Seine from Versailles to Rouen, then by bus to see the Normandy beaches.

Gordie Wood had a long conversation with David Taylor in November. David learned that after Gordon’s seven years with the Air Force, he started his own commercial aircraft business with just three aircraft. He got his sons into the company as well. Most pleasurable for Gordon have been the many trips he and his wife have made together all over the world.

Alan Schaertel had been a hard man to track down, but David finally did it.

His life was colorful and interesting. He spent many years as a broadcast journalist with the Associated Press in Europe (mostly Germany). Regrettably, Alan died recently but used to live in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

His daughter is married and living there and is a chemistry professor at a nearby university.

1956

THE TRINITY REPORTER

C L ASS NOTES Finally, I have to report that Peter Turner died last March. In addition, I am very sad to report that John Limpitlaw died in January.

In retirement, he and wife Susan lived in Naples, Florida, but had a summer home on Cape Cod, where David Taylor usually spent a week each year. John had a very full and successful life, which included working in personnel at Marine Midland Trust and as vice president for human resources at Macmillan Publishing. After retirement, he went to Yale Divinity School, where he earned an M.A., and served as vicar of the parish of Christ Church in Easton, Connecticut. When I lived in Connecticut, I saw him often and enjoyed him a great deal. I will miss him big time.

REUNION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $20,000 Class Secretary: Frederick M. Tobin, Esq., 771 John Ringling Blvd., Apt. F26, Sarasota, FL 34236-1518; frederick.tobin.1957@trincoll.edu • Class Agent: Samuel Mac D. Stone II Dick Behr reports that he and Joan sold their house in Cape May, New Jersey, after 25 summers and a few winters. It was not easy for them to leave as they made many friends there. Actually, they could visit the Cape and have their friends put them up and give them some free meals. Don Finkbeiner is an expert freeloader. The Behrs are in semi-lockdown at their retirement place 20 miles west of Philadelphia. They have been relatively safe. Dick sadly reports that his Delta Phi “grandfather” John Limpitlaw ’56 passed away in January.

Jerry and Mary Channell are well and staying careful with an easy lifestyle.

Russell Jones still lives in Chester County, Pennsylvania. After 75 years, he gave up fox hunting. Yikes, what a span. He is fully retired but remains active in thoroughbred breeding and racing. For the benefit of our esteemed classmate—the emperor of Franklin, Massachusetts—Russ is not a baker; he works with horses. He has been married to Donnan Sharp for 15 years. Russ is grateful for walking and being in good health.

Jim Kenefick continues to bang his gavel softly but with authority as a Connecticut Superior Court judge. His honor just might remain on the bench until he is 90.

Neil Day says, “When I chose Trinity, my dad said Robert Day of England was a founder of Hartford. Vivian and I were wed in 1964, and both of us are well. Best wishes to all.”

David and Connie McCracken tested positive for COVID-19 on January 12. Dave had a few mild symptoms, but Connie had a rough time for a week. They ended their quarantine on January 25, and it appears that they are out of the woods.

1957

S P R I N G 2021

We, aka Fred and Carroll Tobin, continue to split our time between Sarasota, Florida, and our home in Bromley Village in Vermont. However, this year we are staying safe in Vermont. The population high up in the mountains in southern Vermont is small, and there are signs along the roads warning that masks are mandatory in buildings.

Carroll and I have vaccinations scheduled for February. We might return to Sarasota in the spring.

Don and Sue Pillsbury are doing well in this lockdown period. They are strictly maintaining their quarantine. Don’s Model A is doing well. It was in a movie filmed in Newport in December 2019. Don has received his ham license and is trying to figure out what to do with it. In his dotage, he has taken up clock repair. Finally, Don had a triple bypass in August. He finished rehab and feels great.

Stephan von Molnar passed in Tallahassee, Florida, in November 2020 after a short illness. I am grateful to Bryan Bunch for informing me of Steve’s death. Born in Leipzig, Germany, during the atrocities of World War II, Steve left Germany for New York City in 1947. He married late wife Jean in 1956.

When we were at Trinity, Steve and I battled for the first-place trophy in table tennis. He was the master on offense, and I specialized on defense as a backboard. He won most of our matches by something like 35–4. After Trinity, “the Baron,” as he was called during his college days, joined the IBM Research Center, where he commenced his career as a brilliant physicist. Thereafter he lived in England, France, and Germany and served as a visiting professor at Cambridge and then at Grenoble in France. He finally landed at Florida State University, where he continued his work on the faculty. Steve became a fan of the Seminoles football team; he once told me that he might become an assistant coach.

Steve loved coming back for Reunions. He had a great sense of humor and liked music.

May he rest in peace.

1958

Trinity Fund Goal: $30,000 Class Secretary: John L. Thompson, 1121D Sand Drift Way, West Palm Beach, FL 33411-1852; john. thompson.1958@trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Gary L. Bogli, Joseph J. Repole Jr., Edward B. Speno Have you noticed that every time the next issue of The Trinity Reporter comes, the Class of ’58 notes are a page closer to the beginning of the section? Even though we are collectively creeping toward page 1, it is reassuring that we can still creep! So, let’s get on with it.

Joe Repole wrote a two-piece note. First, he reported that he heard from Barry Elliott,

who says ancestry.com shows that one of his ancestors came on the Mayflower. Barry is looking forward to a grandchild’s May wedding. Second, Joe says the Reporter note that says he rode 2,600 miles last year should say 3,600. Now it does.

Bernie Moran writes on. He still hopes that circumstances allow for a Trinity production of his play Fight For Life, and he is writing a movie script, Green Card Marriage, about a couple who do just that. He laments that weather and COVID-19 have curtailed most of his usual travel to see family.

In response to my charge to classmates who have not regularly written, Ridge Satterthwaite sent an informative and fascinating mini-autobiography. He wrote: “Since graduation, my journey has been one of constant change but always in work as a teacher and/or administrator of educational programs. Latin America has been my principal focus. I have been a community development volunteer in El Salvador, Cuba, and Mexico; been a field-studies program director of geography, Macalester College, with a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin; done Fulbright field studies in El Salvador; taught Spanish at Westtown School and Dartmouth College; and done a three-year stint as director of Central American programs for the Experiment in International Living.” In 1977, Ridge relocated to Vermont to head the Farm & Wilderness Foundation.

He has since been tied to Vermont and for the past 26 years has resided in Thetford. In the early ’90s, he directed volunteer training in Swaziland and Cape Verde for the Peace Corps. Instead of retiring, he has worked as a financial adviser to Vermont seniors and directed hiking and canoeing for a nearby summer camp. There are three children, three stepchildren, four grandchildren, and five step-grands. He and Sally remain in good health, and he happily reports having been COVID vaccinated as an essential worker, not as an old man.

Pete Smith got cranked up re some of his life’s most challenging endeavors and career highlights. He cites some high spots as watching their children and grandchildren succeed as students, athletes, and performers, as well as skiing in the Alps, being a Trinity football “unsung hero,” front row at JFK’s inauguration, and a great 60-plus year marriage.

Reasonably good health, good friends, and good food were COVID-tempered pleasures for Dean Uphoff, who continues to do pathology at Hartford Hospital. While he does get more time in his garden, he has missed several pandemic-canceled cruises.

He has his fingers crossed for a fall 2021 21-day cruise down the West Coast, through the canal, and on to Miami.

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CL ASS N OT E S Mike Zoob says that fundraising to keep Road Scholar afloat, 310 miles on his rowing machine, and a successful vaccine hunt help keep him going. When all else fails, as usual, he reads. Occasional mindless fiction and heavy-duty historic and current perspectives keep his mind going. Despite his eternal optimism, he is confused by how we can go forward as a country when so many seem unable to distinguish facts from alternative facts. Further, he cites our curse of the original sin of racism and laments the lack of evidence that we can purge it from our culture. He regrets that our youngest generation is being shortchanged by so much school online. He closes by noting that his supply of Beefeater is sufficient to what end he knows not.

It is new world, opines Gary Bogli. He and Bette got their vaccines, and he has had a few family gatherings, regrettably via Zoom.

Fishing and skiing have not happened, but he still engages in serious fly tying as a pastime. He does read; he says he did not at Trinity. No way, Gary!

Frank Kury wrote in February that while he and Bet are locked down from COVID-19 and a major snowstorm, they are in good health. He has finished The Constitutional Question to Save the Planet, scheduled for April publication by the Environmental Law Institute of Washington. The book marks the 50th anniversary of the Environmental Rights Amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution. Frank authored and led the law to enactment when he was in the State House of Representatives.

Personally, I still serve as a trustee of a regional independent school and continue to preside over the neighborhood HOA. I have enjoyed rereading some books from the ’50s, especially Edwin O’Connor’s political piece The Last Hurrah. Shirley continues her struggle with Parkinson’s and a recent stroke. Between that and the pandemic, we maintain a low profile. However, it is February and Florida. The strange and sometimes bizarre is happening. A recent phenomenon finds wealthy New Yorkers buying and moving to the Palm Beach area by droves. Some of the locals are not happy that one former New Yorker has moved into Mar-a-Lago. Even though he is a nuisance down the block, personally I am delighted that he has moved out of Washington.

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Trinity Fund Goal: $100,000 Class Secretary: Paul S. Campion, 500 River Rd., Apt. 18, Cos Cob, CT 06807-1913; paul.campion.1959@trincoll. edu • Class Agents: Robert D. Coykendall, William H. Pfeffer It is always fun to hear from Bob Harnish from Amelia Island, Florida, who continues with

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his regimen of hiking and biking as he awaits the vaccine sessions. He mentioned that he would like to hear from fellow Florida ’59ers as he is new to the Sunshine State.

I received a note from Bill Lukens, who informed us of the sad passing of Larry Morgan last fall from respiratory complications. Luke is still actively painting and has enjoyed successful exhibitions.

Paul Kardon touched base with us to report that it was a somber winter season in the Naples area. Paul lost his brother Alan ’65 due to leukemia. Also, the Trinity Club of Southwest Florida has been unable to meet.

Linda and Shep Scheinberg came down with COVID-19 at year’s end. Shep had a severe case and was semiconscious for four days. Both are doing fine now, but it was a long and difficult road to recovery.

I received warm greetings from Emilee and Jon Reynolds, in Bethesda, Maryland, near neighbors Pat and Bill Abeles, whom they see on a random basis, usually on a rendezvous on the Delaware shore. All are feeling well and in the waiting period between their shots.

Denny Hoag emailed me that there was no “earth-shattering” news to report but urged us to stay resilient.

I heard from Michael Palmer, who went to Sarasota, Florida, to stay with his youngest and did not return to Connecticut until last summer. Michele Palmer has established the University of Connecticut’s Malka Penn Award for an outstanding children’s book that addresses human rights issues.

As a result, she keeps busy reading this year’s children books. Mike is with JewishGen to produce in English the Holocaust book Pinkas Krynki, the town in Poland where his father’s family lived before coming to America.

Kenny Lessall tuned in from Palm Beach, where he has finished his vaccine process.

He endured the long lines and in his talks with Shep Scheinberg was glad to hear that he was feeling much better. He sends his best to all of his classmates and hopes everyone is being safe.

Karl Scheibe continues to have an office at Wesleyan University’s Wasch Center for retired faculty; he is director emeritus. He maintains a small practice as a licensed clinical psychologist and has a few students in tutorials and directed study. Karl and wife Wendy recently moved to a new development in Middletown and remain busy with their two married sons and seven grandchildren.

Arne Englehart continues to stay in touch from Akron, Ohio, where COVID-19 is the main consideration. Arne and wife Sandra have been following the rules, and the vaccine rollout has been smooth. Arne is with Howard Hanna Real Estate, the fifth-largest

privately owned firm in the country, covering states surrounding Ohio. He reports that business has been brisk due to low mortgage rates.

From Jon Reynolds: “Emilee and I are still here in Bethesda, Maryland, and have no plans to move or travel. Bill and Pat Abeles are closest Trinity neighbors. In closing, while our president has indeed noted that this is not just any year at Trinity College, it is indeed a year with many milestones. Just as there was a first person who walked onto the campus and became our first donor. Who and how much will the next donor(s) bring?”

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Trinity Fund Goal: $150,000 Class Secretary: Edward M. Cimilluca, P.O. Box 5157, Wakefield, RI 02880-5157; edward.cimilluca.1960@ trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Robert G. Johnson, Charles J. Middleton, M.D., Bruce Stone As I pen these notes in the winter of 2020–21, we are full-throated in the midst of COVID19, and almost all of my discussions with classmates center around the pandemic and vaccine availability. Fortunately, a fair number of people have gotten at least the first shot, and many are in registries awaiting notification. The pandemic plus the vitriol surrounding the presidential election have made this one of the most challenging periods that any of us can remember.

Compounding the angst that seems to be hanging over us, we unfortunately have had two deaths in our expanded family that likely will touch many of us. First, we lost Roger LeClerc in January 2021 at age 84. Roger was certainly one of the most renowned of our classmates, having spent eight years in the NFL, mostly with the Chicago Bears; he then taught mathematics for 30 years in Agawam, Massachusetts.

Also in early 2021, Bob Johnson’s wife, Faith, died. Although Faith didn’t go to Trinity, she was a loyal and rabid fan of the school who attended many football games and college functions. Her biggest contributions to Trinity were sons Greg ’90 and Chris ’92, both proud Trin alums.

On the news front, we have had seven Zoom meetings with classmates, with our next one scheduled for mid-February. All told, we’ve had 42 people participate at one time or another, which is about 30 percent of the class. These meetings have been a good way to stay in touch, especially in these trying times.

I had a nice note from Dave Rutherford, who lives in Florida and is the “proud owner” of a pacemaker. He recently spent some time with Ned Chalker and wife Bev. Rich Brenner reports that his daughter was elected to the Maine State Senate on her first try at public office. Congratulations to her.

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I have had several fun email exchanges with Tim Baum, who unabashedly proclaims his disdain for technology and refers to himself as dinosaur and Luddite. Attaboy, Tim. Marv Peterson reports that plans to return to Montana for some skiing are on hold because of COVID-19. In the meantime, he’s doing a lot of neighborhood walking in Santa Cruz, California.

Spoke with Dick Stockton, who is safely ensconced in Vero Beach but getting very tired of being cooped up. Hopefully a vaccine will soon be coming his way.

Lastly, Tony Phillips is in his last year teaching at the Art Institute of Chicago, a career that has covered an amazing 52 years. Also, one of his paintings, Woman with Cigar, has been added to the museum’s collection. Well done, Tony. Please stay safe and well.

REUNION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $185,000 Class Secretary: William Kirtz, 26 Wyman St., Waban, MA 02468-1517; william.kirtz.1961@trincoll.edu; fax: 617373-8773 • Class Agents: George P. Lynch Jr., Vincent R. Stempien, Douglas T. Tansill When you read this, we’ll be in virtual Reunion mode, with hopes to get together in person before too long.

As the ’61 Reunion Committee and college officials coped with the changing situation, our February Zoom meeting heard some good news: so far this year, our class has raised about $1.4 million for the college. We met our Class of 1961 Scholar, Lily Ryan ’24, from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, who started Trinity online in the fall and on-campus February 19. Lily is studying education and public policy and law and was active in track and debate in high school.

While we chipped ice up north, we’re delighted to report that our Vero Beach contingent enjoyed 81-degree weather.

Frank Morse recently celebrated his 55th wedding anniversary with Nina, moved to Vero last fall, and for some reason “doesn’t miss that dreaded term ‘wintry mix.’ ” Consumed with home improvements, he’s “on a first-name basis with all contractors known to man. Still working on putting deals together. Had all vaccines and ready to party.”

Faithful correspondent Doug Tansill writes, “Dhuanne and I had a wonderful dinner in Vero this week with Bill and Marlynn Scully and Andy and Betsy Forrester. We all hope to catch up soon with Guy Dove and Connie Gage and their spouses, who also have homes in Vero.”

Randy Ryan also is keeping warm, in Tucson, Arizona: “Twenty-one years retired from flying for United Airlines, I am now a

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five-year cancer survivor. Still playing bridge and tennis a couple of times a week and in May will have been happily married to Pam (Wiley) for 59 years.”

We regret to report the death of Bill Sullivan, of Williamsburg, Virginia, who died in October 2020. In college, he was a philosophy major, president of Pi Kappa Alpha, a member of the Senate, and active in debate. A Columbia Law School graduate, he was appointed chief enforcement officer for the Environmental Protection Agency. Later, he pursued investment projects in Africa and Europe. Bill leaves his wife of 53 years, Anne; children Bill IDP’03 (Nancy ’89), Kate Richards (David), and Sean; and four grandchildren.

REUNION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $250,000 Co-Class Secretary: Paul J. LaRocca, 82 Whiting Rd., East Hartford, CT 06118-1549; paul.larocca.1962@trincoll.edu • Co-Class Secretary: Frederick M. Pryor, 221 Nobscot Rd., Sudbury, MA 01776-3389 • Class Agents: The Rev. Charles L. Hoffman, Peter Meehan Greetings, Class of 1962, We did not have a rousing response to our request for news for this issue, but your ever-resourceful reporters will attempt to rise to the challenge. Fortunately, Lou Renza did write: “I’m sorry to say that Dave Post ’63 hit the ground late last year. I’m sure many of my fellow ’62 Crow members and other Trinity contemporaries remember him well and will equally mourn his loss—and the same goes for Danny Romanos ’63, who also passed last year. Dave risked his life during the Vietnam War navigating photo jets over Hanoi, in a war with which he never agreed, but he did what he did given his Trinity ROTC commitment. He was a wonderful friend and not just to me (cf. George Guiliano ’63 and Anthony Sirianni ’63), a lively raconteur, someone with humor, a good father, and talented in carpentry, music, and spontaneous deep thought. He leaves

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behind his no-less-wonderful wife Barry and family—and us.”

When pressed for news on what his life has been like, Lou noted that he is retired professor emeritus at Dartmouth College, having chaired its English Department. As another emeritus professor (in the humanities), I asked how he has seen education evolve. He said, “I’m out of the loop now.

A former student of mine (with whom I had regular lunches before COVID-19 took hold) keeps me abreast of things.” (I have to add that one of the real rewards of teaching at any level is the regular contact with former students, with their recollections of classroom hours, those words of “wisdom” that meant a great deal to them and yet that we barely recall saying. What they’ve done with the seeds we planted—successes and failures—makes them almost second families to us.) Lou reports that Dartmouth still pulls in top-notch students, but more frequently with a higher focus on job-related vocations: computer studies, government, economics, and the sciences. Consequently, subjects in the humanities like English and many European foreign language and literature courses have taken a hit in enrollments and majors. I found the same pattern holds at Goodwin. I’m sure that many of you from the non-teaching fields have mentored new entrants to your fields, with rewarding updates from them as they developed their careers and personal lives.

As Trinity in our days reflected classical education, you might find interesting The New York Times Magazine article “The Iconoclast” (February 7, 2021, p. 36), by Rachel Poser about Professor Dan-el Padilla Peralta and the role of the classics in education today.

Lou also published Dylan’s Autobiography of a Vocation: A Reading of the Lyrics, 1965–1967; a check of the Internet revealed the purpose: “a critical detour from the ‘probable’ as … an attempted ‘possible’ explanation of Dylan’s songs between 1965 and 1967 … an extended surmise about Dylan’s existential unconsciousness as a songwriting self. One can summarize the book’s thesis using any number of lines from his songs. I prefer ‘Someone else is speakin’ in my mouth, but I’m listening only to my heart.’ ” Lou and his wife live in Hanover, New Hampshire, where Lou continues writing, with a focus on poetry.

Speaking of literature, especially in this age of COVID-19, I reread Tolstoy’s War and Peace after first watching a BBC-TV version (and, having finished the novel, the Henry Fonda-Audrey Hepburn film). As a kid, I found the variations of Russian names hard to cope with; this time they gave me no problems. The late Yale professor Harold Bloom,

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in a final book attempting to define great literature, called War and Peace the greatest novel of the 19th century. I found it a mediocre tale of family angst and romance, larded with some good war scenes and loads of easily summarized philosophy: “Great” men do not make history; instead, it is the individual and his spur-of-the-moment decisions.

However, as professors love to say, “You do not judge great books: they judge you.”

Since literature is our topic, I thought you might be interested in books recommended in a Trinity English course. Here are several titles from a recommended booklist, a gift from one of my former students: Joshua Ferris, Then We Came to the End; David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest; Nicholson Baker, The Mezzanine; Michael Crummey, Galore; and George Saunders, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil.

Will I get some feedback from you on any that you read and enjoy? Fred and I did get a comment from John Densem, reporting that he had nothing to report. You may recall that John has written about his extensive travels.

I remember his train trip across Australia.

In my youth, a close friend and I both loved trains: he bought beautiful models (HO gauge, exquisite reminders of the great passenger and freight lines of those times).

I bought railroad stocks instead; we have derived great pleasure from our choices.

But I still love the rails, regularly expressed in purchases of old VCR tapes of trains. My latest included shots of the great Australian lines, with their stations and bright colors, traveling along vast dry lands with stops at stations and festivals organized for rail fanatics. I could picture John among them!

Fred Pryor also wrote to me: “Our classmates must be getting old—no responses to my five or six emails!” Then he received the news that Tom Johnson has had successful triple bypass surgery and is recovering nicely in sunny Florida. Given Lou Renza’s thoughts on his fraternity brothers, here’s a special request to the officers of our Trinity fraternities: What do you hear from your members?

To wrap up, let us hope that we all are healthy and looking forward to the end of this 21st-century plague!

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Trinity Fund Goal: $125,000 Class Secretary: Michael A. Schulenberg, 89 Judson St., Canton, NY 13617; michael.schulenberg.1963@trincoll. edu • Class Agent: William C. Howland Members of the Class of ’63 have been Zooming monthly since last spring. We meet at 2:30 p.m. EDT on the first Wednesday of the month so that classmates from Maine, Alaska, and Hawaii as well as those in South America can make it during relatively sane waking hours. Discussion centers around

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keeping a narrow focus on updating one another about goings on. Topics like politics (particularly in these days just past), religion, and sex (what was that?) mostly have been avoided out of courtesy for the points of view of all attending. Members of the college staff also have joined on occasion to give the current state of campus life during these days of COVID-19. Our monthly Zoom meetings are poignant times to remember classmates who are beginning to pass in ever-increasing numbers as we cross the bar into octogenarian status.

It’s always good to hear from the Class of ’63! Here is what they share as most of us are entering into our 80th year: From Tim Lenicheck, our hardworking class president: “For what seems like an eternity, I’ve been semi-isolating, masked at all times, and carrying a tape to measure the distance between me and the nearest fellow human, who, like all humans, is a potential existential threat. Now I can say, ‘I want my vaccine!’ ” (Secretary’s note: Tim has done a super job of giving us ample opportunities to stay informed with the state of the college and engaged with the activities of the Class of ’63.)

From Steve Perreault, written in mid-January: “Best wishes to all for a happier new year. Jean and I continue to cocoon cautiously at home while awaiting our first COVID vaccinations next week. Also, I recently learned that Debbie Winfield has reported the news that her husband, Don Winfield, died in June 2019. He was a close friend to me during our Trinity years and after. I recall shooting baskets with him and others in the old Alumni Hall, a habit we continued into the late ’60s. Following graduation, Don entered his career in banking and finance (see the obituary recently sent out by Tom Calabrese to the entire class).”

And speaking of Tom Calabrese, he writes: “Since retiring, I have been doing a lot more reading, and I am loving it. I wish I had done more when I was younger. I recently finished a two-volume history written in 1920 by H.G. Wells and twice updated, in 1931 and 1940.

He says, ‘Humans always want war; they cannot live without it.’ ” But, writes Tom, Wells, like others, has no real answer as to why this has to be.

From Lloyd Reynolds: “In spite of the virus, winters on Cape Canaveral are pretty good. This winter, we’ve met up a couple of times with Sandy and Starr Brinckerhoff for fun lunches; they live nearby. There are not too many other social activities at the moment. But, I called the VA to see about getting the vaccine, and they said, ‘Come right over.’ A half-hour drive later, I had my first dose. Here’s hoping others are as fortunate. Warm regards to all.”

From Scott Reynolds, this good note: “My brothers and I are engaged in a project to celebrate the lives of our parents, who died some 30-plus years ago. The centennial marker of their births causes us to collect pictures and news clippings, yearbooks, and the like, even joining ancestor.com to get information on their lives and their history.

We have not found anything startling, so our little effort won’t make good TV, but we are having a lot of fun. The final form of our work is not yet decided. It may be a mixed-media video or a Shutterfly book. If any of you have tips on all this, I would love to hear from you.

All this has been a great way to fill the time of quarantined isolation.”

And this from Stan Marcuss: “I am a member of an organization called Lawyers Defending American Democracy, formed by a group of us at our 50th Harvard Law School Reunion. We now have something like 6,000 supporters. Our purpose is to identify and try to deal with threats to American democracy and the rule of law. As part of that organization, I have been drafting open letters to Congress, public statements, op-ed pieces, and letters to the editors of various news outlets dealing with activities we believe to be threatening the rule of law and American democracy. Our work can be viewed at lawyersdefendingdemocracy.org. All the best to you all, Stan” And this last good note from Steve Imrie: “We’ve been trying to not be too depressed by the ongoing lockdown here in California.

Fortunately, our youngest daughter has become comfortable that we can spend time with our grandchildren, so Christmas was one of the best ever. Susie and I have remained healthy and as active socially as possible. We are working and helping out as we can, Susie as a consulting physical therapist at Stanford and I with the VA doing orthopedic outpatient clinics and helping at a VA COVID-19 vaccination clinic. I also have volunteered to do maintenance work at the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad outdoor museum. Best wishes in this new year to all.”

To all of you, blessings and peace. Don’t forget that we have a class Zoom gathering the first Wednesday of the month at 2:30 EDT. ’Tis a good way to see friends and stay connected! Michael Schulenberg, class secretary

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Trinity Fund Goal: $170,000 Co-Class Secretary: Thomas J. Monahan, 46 Dogwood Ln., New Canaan, CT 06840-3921; thomas.monahan.1964@ trincoll.edu • Co-Class Secretary: James S. Twerdahl, 214 S. McCadden Pl., Los Angeles, CA 90004-1054; james.twerdahl.1964@ trincoll.edu • Class Agent: Vacant Phin Anderson remains settled in Sutherland Valley outside of Tucson, Arizona. He has

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been very active raising money to award to outstanding K–12 teachers in the city. When the world reopens, he hopes to travel to Croatia and then to attend the World Expo in Dubai. Optimistic about the Olympics, plan B homebound …

Tony Milbank is one of few still going to the office every day for the past 11 months.

His group of 12 is down to two showing up daily. Tony shares the same concern we all do about business in N.Y.C. and in the rest of the country. As you would expect, threefourths of our class have had to adjust their schedule and relocate to the Hamptons while we await a reopening. I recommend that you listen to the Trinity podcast series by Paul Sullivan ’95, Beyond the Summit. One is a great story about David Schnadig ’86 and his private equity firm Cortec Group and how they invested in YETI coolers—a great product that needed direction and supervision. They invested $65 million and sold it for $1.8 billion … 26 times. Sullivan writes a wealth management column for The New York Times.

Ward Ewing, former dean and president of the General Theological Seminary and chair of the Alcoholics Anonymous General Service Board, has just finished writing Twelve Steps to Religionless Spirituality, a model for applying spiritual principles in our increasingly secular world. He notes that the spirituality of A.A. is based on experience, is inclusive, and is powerful for healing brokenness.

Our class poet, David Curry, has a new poem, “Elizabeth Bishop and Marianne Moore at the Circus,” which will appear in Atlanta Review, an international, awardwinning poetry journal based in Atlanta.

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Trinity Fund Goal: $150,000 Class Secretary: Thomas A. Garson, 4301 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Apt. 5002, Washington, D.C. 20016-5569; thomas.garson.1965@trincoll.edu • Class Agent: Vacant For many years, Dave Barkley was involved with Virtlab (a virtual laboratory), but it is closing this year. “While it is sad, it had a long run and had a positive influence on educational technology over several decades. The only book I ever wrote on my life experiences was The Only Real House of Mirrors. It has a tiny but enthusiastic audience, and it explores the inner journey of a professional scientist attempting to reconcile his scientific and religious views of the world. All might be interested to know that Professor Theodor Mauch, in the Department of Religion at Trinity in our time, was the inspiration for the first two chapters. After decades of medical research and consulting, I finally retired and married Medias Hening Pratiwi. Meidy is a longtime friend and

S P R I N G 2021

colleague I met while consulting for USAID in Indonesia. We have homes in Los Angeles and Jakarta.”

Fred Born and Nic Cantor have been collaborating with an unnamed third party (perhaps a travel agent) on post-COVID travel ideas. At this writing, the top choice is a single-malt distillery, Ardbeg, on the island of Islay, Scotland. It may be a long visit.

Sam Coale: “At Wheaton College since 1968, I’ll retire in June 2021 due to COVID ‘reforms.’ New book last year: Pursuing the Sublime in the Digital Age. Now working on The Abyss of Origins on cultural origin stories, what they have in common.” Son Sam’s film, Bad Drones, will be out soon—“a smashing sci-fi tale!” Sam reports that he is still vertical and taking nourishment!

David Graybill: “Weather permitting outside, I continue to love playing in the dirt in our Connecticut woodland home. Inside, I fight my addiction to MSNBC. Always, I smile and chuckle at John Ellwood’s frequent email jokes that remind me of Peanuts’ good counsel: ‘A good laugh and a good night’s sleep will solve every problem.’ ” Since we cannot go anywhere, Phil Hopke has taken on several additional assignments. He is now a co-editor-in-chief of the natural science journal, Science of the Total Environment (STOTEN), as well as being a co-editor-in-chief of a handbook on indoor air quality. STOTEN handled more than 31,000 submissions last year and is starting this year at a similar rate. However, Phil is hoping we can all get vaccinated in time to actually meet in person this year.

It would be good to have something more than Zoom interactions.

Henry Hopkins: “Now in my 12th year of retirement, after completing 36 years at T. Rowe Price. I continue to enjoy serving on various boards, including the Brown Advisory Funds, Calvert School, the Maryland Center for History and Culture (previously Maryland Historical Society), Garrison Forest School (emeritus), The Boys’ Latin School of Maryland (emeritus), and St. Christopher by the Sea. Have served as president of the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy Board since it was formed in 2008. To date, we have completed the restoration of the Washington Monument in Baltimore City.

We are now gearing up to commence the restoration of the North/South Squares and then the East/West Squares. Our website is mvpconservancy.org. Have also been heading the efforts of Friends of Clifton Mansion to restore Johns Hopkins’s summer home. To date, FCM has restored the Grand Stairway, Tower, and the Dining Room. FCM also has completed the restoration of the South Lawn and the South Porch and the renovation of the Reception Room. Our next projects will

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be the restoration of the Gardener’s Cottage and the North Lawn. Our website is www. friendsofcliftonmansion.org.”

Vincent Lombardo: “We just moved to a larger house on the golf course in our 55-andover gated community in Florida, now our permanent residence. It is called Summit Greens. We are in Clermont, Florida, in Central Florida, a half hour from the Orlando airport and Disney/Universal. Clermont is home of Olympic training centers and is called the ‘Choice of Champions.’ It is really the only hilly town in flat Florida. I am newly elected to the board of our homeowner’s association. I’m keeping busy, which is the key to being happy.”

Phil Parsons “highly recommends Jill Lepore’s history of the United States, These Truths. At 900 pages and so well written, it has special appeal during the time of COVID.” COVID life for Jon and Charlene Simonian in N.Y.C. is taking care of their beautiful 2½-year-old granddaughter, Charlotte, and her 2½-week-old brother, Jon David, while their parents work; cleaning out 10 years of clutter from closets; going to medical appointments; and daydreaming about golf.

You’ve got to love the golden years.

Dave Williams, M.D.: “On the personal side, I am getting tired of COVID. Our two sons and their families are nearby, but we have been abiding by restrictions related to contact.

Unlike my wife, Carol, my social network is small, and in the absence of golf, contact with others is limited to clinical activities.

Even in the hospital setting, physicians are separated, as meetings and conferences are Zoom based. Nevertheless, for we seniors, the key is to remain safe. Fortunately, I have received the vaccine. Here in Massachusetts, availability to those not involved with patient care has been limited to nursing home residents. Hence, I am the only one in my family who has been inoculated. It will be some time before vaccination is widespread, thus isolation remains important. Everyone needs to remain cautious. Look forward to seeing everyone in person!”

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CL ASS N OT E S Tom Jansen passed away on January 2.

From Tom Wells: “Tom was my roommate at Trinity, fellow Pipes member (he was a wonderful tenor; I was the business manager), and fraternity brother. Tom was one of the nicest and kindest men I knew.”

Tom’s life revolved around music. Living in Boston after graduation, he was active in numerous choral groups. He served as music manager, among other leadership positions, at Trinity Church there. Later, after returning to Westport, Massachusetts, while continuing his singing, he sailed, bodysurfed with his grandchildren, and was active in the Westport River Watershed Alliance. John Losse added, “Tom is fondly remembered by his brothers at Theta Xi as a gentle friend and an especially surly waiter in the fraternity’s dining hall. But it was all in fun.”

REUNION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $130,000 Class Secretary: David C. Charlesworth, 5 Kittanset Rd., Bedford, NH 03110-4508; david.charlesworth.1966 @trincoll.edu • Class Agent: Joseph A. Hourihan, Esq. Well, on the surface of things, not much has changed. We are for the most part in personal and national lockdown grinding through the winter months of social distancing, mask wearing, and hand washing. As of this writing in February, the economy is still struggling, COVID-19 is still rampant with new strains materializing, and the country is divided into two political tribes. On the upside, a massive economic package is working its way through Congress. And COVID vaccines are now widely available with most in our cohort already vaccinated. What could possibly go wrong?

I did hear from a few classmates. Rich Rissel dropped me a nice note, as he says, “a little news from the left coast.” (That’s rich, Rich.) He writes: “I fully retired the end of September and then embarked on a twoweek road trip, kind of like going to Bennett.

Went up through Bend, Oregon; Eastern Oregon and Washington; the Bitterroot Valley in Montana; and Sun Valley and Twin Falls in Idaho. I fished along the way and caught up with a number of old Marine Corps buddies. Since then, COVID-19 has dictated life at home. Until it got too cold, five or six couples got together every Friday night for socially distanced cocktails and munchies. Now it is golf three or four times a week and Netflix at night.” You’re showing great adaptability, Rich.

Joe Hourihan, in his inimitable taciturn style, observed, “We are bored, but thankfully still working—which gets us out— that and the casino.” You still have that Irish luck.

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Bill Eakins signed off the Reunion Committee because he and Hope were headed, once again, on another aroundthe-world cruise. I guess that is one form of social distancing.

Our two Trin professors have been busy.

Randy Lee spoke at the Trinity Club of Hartford on the “Psychological/Emotional Impact of COVID-19” on January 13, 2021. Meanwhile, Sam Kassow spoke on “Catastrophe and Rebirth, 1939–1973” for a virtual event on December 1, 2020, that was sponsored by the Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

While all of you were wondering what you were going to do differently today from what you did yesterday, your fully engaged Reunion Committee met by Zoom on February 9, assisted by our new favorite Trinity admin people, Theresa Kidd, Caitlin Gasiorski, and Michelle Deluse. Present (with nothing better to do) were George Andrews, Randy Lee, Lindley Scarlett, Rich Rissel, Bill Roos, Bill Carlson, Jeff Dierman, and Mase Ross. This was a very serious meeting, as you can imagine. Importantly, using the college’s accounting methods for class giving, Jeff pointed out that our class had pledged more than $1 million. That doesn’t leave us off the hook. We still would like all of you to consider giving something to raise the giving percentage. Very important for college rankings. One important thing we learned was that Lindley and Randy went to the same Sunday school. They learned that they would be saved from any future epidemics. Jeff observed they were referring to the 1918 flu. Meanwhile, George opined that if an elder 43-year-old football player could win his seventh Super Bowl, then it was time to bring back Rich Rissel for the Super Bowl.

Jeff thought that for Rich, a Super Bowl was a bowl of pablum … I guess you had to be there. The best story was from Bill Carlson.

As many of you know, Bill has retired to the farther outreaches of Cape Cod, where he and Lonni keep horses, among other things.

First, on the subject of COVID vaccines, he had not received his yet because they were so far out in the boonies, and the infrastructure had not been set up. He said no worries because it was not hard to socially distance in his small town of 3,000. On the second subject, Bill was nuzzling with his favorite horse while he was feeding it. The horse had kept tugging at him, which Bill misinterpreted as nuzzling. Backstory: The day before, there had been a huge nor’easter.

With the surf crashing, the storm howling, and the warm fire crackling inside, Bill didn’t hear the tree being blown down between the barn and the paddock. The horses, however, did see the tree come violently crashing

down. They were understandably spooked.

So, Bill’s favorite horse was trying to tell him that he was spooked by this crashing tree.

When Bill did not appropriately respond to his horse’s tugging, the horse turned around and kicked him. Bill did not disclose where he was kicked. But he showed up to the committee meeting in good spirits.

That about wraps it up. Until next time, be well.

REUNION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $220,000 Class Secretary: James L. O’Connor, 325 W. 86th St., Apt. 4C, New York, NY 10024-3115; james.oconnor.1967 @trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Alex Levi, James H. Oliver You may remember that I emailed all of you asking, “How is the Class of 1967 weathering the COVID-19 pandemic?” The answer: as well as could be expected. Some had mild cases of the virus, which, according to Nate Rath, was “like a bad flu.” Others, like John Loeb, spent a week or more in the hospital. But so far, no classmates have died of COVID-19 (as of mid-February 2021).

John wrote, “Other than our contracting and surviving COVID during our move from New Orleans (to Philadelphia) and my weeklong hospitalization, fortunately with no long-term effects, taking long walks, and running a few errands to find something not available from Whole Foods, there is little to report.”

Gil Campbell checked in. “Greetings from the pandemic capital of South Carolina.

Mariett and I are doing great and have tested negative for COVID-19 twice. We celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary on November 28, 2020, by spending two nights in a highly sanitized Best Western hotel in Beaufort, South Carolina. Two sons tested positive and had COVID bouts. One granddaughter and two grandsons also got sick. But no one suffered unduly. We ate at the all-time greatest seafood restaurant in the world, Dockside, in Beaufort. It is open, believe it or not, for indoor dining. Anyway, clam chowder and crab cakes were ceremoniously consumed with social distancing. I believe there is a grandchildren competition in our class. We hope to win. We are now the proud ‘owners’ of 11 grandchildren. They are happy and growing taller.”

Luke Terry reports, “Vaccination lines are very long here in Florida despite the state having above-average efficiency in getting through this challenge.”

Steve Griggs got his first shot on February 4. “We were supposed to go to the Bahamas to celebrate my 75th, but that was postponed until March. Yes, like everybody else, we have been itching to travel. We feel fortunate

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to be in a position to take these trips, and so far, we have been healthy enough to at least dream that we can do so.”

John Ray has abandoned his Washington area softball league. “With the ongoing COVID pandemic, my wife finally decided to fully retire from teaching. Her first request was to move closer to our daughter and her family. We succeeded. Twenty-eight houses away from them. We are in Chesapeake, Virginia, with a small house on a small lake and enjoying the change from all the traffic in the D.C. area.”

Besides Gil Campbell, several other classmates recently celebrated various 50th anniversaries: Jeff Fox got the ball rolling by noting his 50th wedding anniversary and 50th reunion at Harvard Business School.

Alex Levi says, “I qualify as well: Trin 2017, Columbia M.B.A. 2019, married 50 years May 31, 2020. In 2023, will be 50 years for Adelphi M.A., and in 2025, 50 years since my Ph.D.” Rob Boas: “2017 Trinity 50th Reunion, 2020 50th wedding anniversary and 50th law school at UVA.” Rich Ratzan was succinct as always: “December 11, 2020, was #52 going on #53. Deo volente. Ciao. P.S. I was in Jeff and Marlene’s wedding. Poor Marlene! God bless her!”

While looking at Instagram, I came across some very colorful, impressionistic drawings of New York City. They are the work of Peter Heller. He tells me that he began drawing lessons at New York’s 92nd Street Y a few years ago. He works in watercolors and colored pencils and takes classes two or three times a week. “For classmates unfamiliar with the 92nd Street Y, there are wonderful Zoom classes—in art, music, and literature, inter alia. Taking two great classes there now on the blues and on the Beatles and Bob Dylan.” If you have Instagram, be sure to look for Peter’s paintings.

If you have celebrated any 50ths, let me know, and I promise you’ll be in the next Class Notes!

Remember our 55th coming up in 2022. We want to see everyone there, so please wear a mask, practice social distancing, and get vaccinated.

1968

Trinity Fund Goal: $350,000 Class Secretary: Daniel L. Goldberg, 53 Beacon St., #1, Boston, MA 02108-3531; daniel.goldberg.1968@trincoll. edu • Class Agent: Barry Bedrick We held our first class-wide Zoom get-together on December 7, 2020, emceed by our fearless leader, Larry Roberts, and attended by about 40 classmates. The Zoom featured video interviews with all three of our current Class of 1968 Scholars, Zach Yung ’22, Cesira Barrett ’23, and Julia Cheesman ’24, with Gerry Pryor, Walt Harrison, and Mike Lestz

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serving as interviewers. It was fascinating to hear about life on campus during this unique school year, and all of our scholars seem to be flourishing. Thanks to all who worked on the logistics of the meeting, in particular Gerry, who handled the technical aspects and the editing of the video interviews. Our scholars are an impressive group, and if you missed their interviews, you can see them at mytrinnet.trincoll.edu/1968. I am pleased to report that we have raised sufficient funds since the Zoom to ensure we can add another Class of ’68 Scholar in the incoming Class of ’25. Thanks to all who gave, and particular thanks to Carl Levitsky for generous gifts to the current-use fund and the scholarship-endowment fund. During the meeting, we also heard from Adrienne Oddi, Trinity’s dean of admissions and financial aid. Adrienne provided great insights regarding Trinity’s current financial aid situation and objectives.

Having received such favorable responses to our seminal class-wide Zoom, we hope to plan two or three a year. Hopefully, we will have had one between the writing of these notes (in February) and their publication.

Your topic suggestions for future Zooms would be appreciated; send them to me.

Among the reconnections the Zoom meeting triggered was one between Parker Prout and Steve Peters, who worked together at Lehman Brothers in the early ’80s. The Trinity bond as co-workers expanded to sharing family dinners and other excursions back in what Parker refers to as the “Jersey Days.” Parker and wife Diane live in Pawling, New York, where he continues his “third career” as a Methodist pastor for two churches in Dutchess County. This year also marks Parker’s 15th year as an on-air classical music broadcaster on FM radio, with a weekly live gig on Thursday mornings on WMNR. You can catch that at wmnr.org, and Parker is happy to take your music requests!

I, Daniel Goldberg, your secretary, am pleased to report that I have caught up with David Chanin and am in regular contact with him. David, among our non-retired contingent, continues his litigation law practice in Philadelphia. If your COVID routine has exhausted the movies and series you can think of, and if you long for more information on the GOAT (yes, Tom Brady has eclipsed even our class’s football stars) on the manipulation of science for hire and on the non-scandal of deflategate, you can stream Four Games in Fall on Amazon Prime and other streaming services. It also marks my film debut and finale.

Hopefully by the time this is published, all of our classmates will have been vaccinated and we will, at last, be rounding the corner on this most difficult and tragic worldwide pandemic. It will no doubt affect—but

hopefully not shorten—our final innings in ways we never expected. Stay well.

1969

Trinity Fund Goal: $150,000 Class Secretary: Alden R. Gordon, Fine Arts Department, Hallden 09, Trinity College, 300 Summit St., Hartford, CT 06106-3100; alden.gordon@trincoll.edu • Class Agent: Nathaniel S. Prentice • /groups/Trinity1969 Coronadiaries Edition: As your class secretary, I usually don’t make my own contributions to the Class Notes nor subject you to my soliloquizing. But as submissions were very light, I am using my editorial license to record here what the experience was of teaching at Trinity during the first outbreak of the coronavirus in spring term 2020.

As I write this in February 2021, we are all pretty bored with isolation and COVID-19.

Seniority is finally having its benefits as we queue up for the vaccine and hope that we are nearing the denouement of this ordeal by contagion. I kept my own Coronadiaries, begun last year on March 15, 2020, exactly 11 months ago. Eight days before, my Trinity art history students had taken the “Art Bus” to meet me at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Only about half the students made the trip. We looked together at original works in their real physical scale and three dimensionality. I hadn’t yet grasped what risk we were taking; fortunately no one was infected, and everyone returned safely to campus. That was the last time I met my students in person. In days, they were all in isolation and scattered across 11 time zones and desperate to salvage their semester and complete their course credits. I had never heard of Zoom except as an onomatopoetic word for speed. The second half of the semester was a rescue mission to coach students through individualized writing projects custom tailored to their places of refuge all over the world. By the end of March, we had all been drilled in online meetings and beginning an isolation that has been longer than anyone knew, punctuated by a cascade of political and social tensions mixed with natural disasters that made 2020 a surrealist global nightmare. Students managed pretty well and were even creative.

We had to be nimble to find art history topics that worked in China, India, Australia, and all across North America. The worst was not having access to the college library and real books. Contrary to popular myth, everything is not on the internet. In fact, very little is on the internet, and we simply allow what is available to shape the results and quality of research. It was deeply frustrating for the Class of 2020, who were robbed of their senior spring and graduation. There were some silver linings. For us personally, having

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our children and their families as resident refugees for months was a continuing house party of childcare and marooned dinner parties. Still teaching full time and writing lectures proved to be a bonus to guarantee that I was busy. As an academic used to doing research and needing uninterrupted time to write, I found quarantine was a hermit philosopher’s refuge. Now I am an accomplished Zoom lecturer, but I can tell you all the reasons that teaching live and in person is the best and what we should all remember as a special privilege.

Leighton Smith also made good use of his time. Leighton writes: “Maybe some of you classmates don’t recall, but I was while at Trinity and continue to be a really big baseball fan and have followed my favorite team, the Yankees, since 1954. Matt Birmingham ’71 and I used to drive down to the Bronx almost every Sunday to go to games at the original Yankee Stadium. I recall having great fun on the quad playing stickball with a broken hockey stick and an old tennis ball, maybe the same one that doubled as the ball we used playing ‘spud’ on the lawn of St. Anthony Hall when George Will ’62 came to visit. George is also a very big baseball fan, by the way. So, after many decades of watching and playing baseball, I decided to write a book about playing baseball: How to Play Smart Baseball. It was published in October by Dorrance and can be bought through that website or through Amazon on paper or as an e-book. I have written seven other books so far and hope to have them published as well—assuming that my baseball book is successful.”

Our next deadline for Class Notes will be on June 14, by which time I hope everyone where you are is vaccinated. Maybe other countries will begin to readmit Americans so we can begin traveling again before the end of 2021.

1970

Trinity Fund Goal: $380,000 Class Secretary: John L. Bonee III, Esq., 19 Scarsdale Rd., West Hartford, CT 06107-3339; john.bonee.1970@trincoll.edu; fax: 860-522-6049 • Class Agents: Joseph A. Barkley III, Esq., Ernest J. Mattei, Esq. Ernie Mattei and I along with our spectacular 50th Reunion Committee of 21 classmates (and growing!) continue working diligently with Theresa Kidd of the Advancement Office to have the best Reunion imaginable despite the pandemic. Theresa’s wisdom and calm enthusiasm have been a guiding force throughout the challenges we have confronted. One thing upon which our committee has agreed unanimously is that it does not wish to have a remote Reunion, and we are doing everything we can to avoid that occurrence. It may be that the college

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will enable us to even have our own special Reunion once the State of Connecticut permits a gathering such as ours. It is potentially extremely exciting for us, and as soon as we have more news, we shall do our best to communicate it to you. The college definitely recognizes that the 50th Reunion is a unique and special event. All I can say is it will be not only memorable but also truly great.

We are most excited about the oral history project about which you recently received an email. If you didn’t, please get your email address to the Alumni Office right away.

Classmate Richard Turk and the director of the Watkinson Library are working together on it. It’s a great endeavor and will generate tremendous memories for all of us. I immediately start thinking of the experiences we lived through culturally. Remember how, all of a sudden, our generation dispensed with last names and insisted on being on a firstname basis with everyone so that we could truly be unified and the American melting pot could come to its ultimate fruition? We then could march off to San Francisco as idealistic flower children having our dreams of peace and prosperity last forever. Then we encountered the horrors of the Vietnam War and its effect upon all of us and our families. Our intelligentsia began to focus on multiculturalism, and the inevitable divisions and arguments ensued. No matter what our political orientation, it became a gut-wrenching experience as our loyalties were torn and ripped asunder. Many of us escaped the cultural stress by succumbing to wanderlust and traveled all over Europe, the Middle East, and lands even farther away only to discover that all Americans have much more in common with one another than they do with the indigenous locals in any other region or nation. The effects of the conflicts were profound, and we were indelibly imprinted with the status of the late ’60s generation forever. Our individual stories and experiences should be recorded for posterity and for historians to research as primary sources. It truly is a worthwhile project. We should do our best to give our heartfelt memories to the recorders.

Hopefully by the time you read these notes, you will have had at least one of the shots and possibly both. Ernie Mattei told me that he is so excited about the liberation he has felt as a result of having had the second shot that he can barely contain his urges to get out there and travel and even party. He is thrilled that another grandchild has just been born. On a more mundane level, he is extremely pleased to report that our class has raised more this fiscal year than ever before. Further, we are on track to pass the alumni participation record for

contributions, and we definitely hope to break all attendance records by having at least 100 of us make it to our unique in-person Reunion, possibly in the autumn before the leaves fall. Let’s keep our focus, and hopefully we shall be there!

Finally, if you cannot get out there to party with Ernie, consider the possibility of getting into some truly creative and engaging European soaps available on Netflix, such as The Restaurant (family internecine challenges to keep the restaurant going for generations) from Sweden and Spiral (a cop life/ criminal justice system thriller) from Paris.

Jeanette and I highly recommend them.

REUNION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $650,000 Class Secretary: David M. Sample, 826 A1A Beach Blvd., St. Augustine, FL 32080; david.sample.1971@trincoll.edu • Class Agent: Vacant Thank you for the memories and notes for this issue of the Reporter. I hope that you enjoy reading them and will be inspired to share yours for the next issue. Please do not wait until I write; simply send me an email (dsample@aol.com) whenever you are inspired. We all will enjoy hearing from and about you!

Mel Kendrick wrote before the pandemic: “I am having a retrospective of my artwork opening this April at the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, Massachusetts.

The show is titled Seeing Things in Things and will cover my work from 1982 to the present. It is quite an honor for me to return to Andover with this show. It covers my career since Trinity, where I spent most of my time at the Austin Art Center. My teachers were Terence La Noue and Dieter Froese (both commuted from New York each week). They opened up the whole New York art scene to us as students. Rizzoli is publishing a monograph on my work (Google Rizzoli Kendrick).

In the book, I am interviewed by my friend and classmate Carroll Dunham ’72.”

Bill LaPlante: “Fifty years after evenings at Trinity, across the rocks on Zion Street visiting ‘Phil’s’ aka College View Tavern, I’ve managed one marriage, two fine children, two incredible grandchildren, five Emmys in television news, start-up of the world’s first all-live 24-hour news channel, owned by ABC-TV. Professionally taught tennis and ice hockey, now working on two books, building custom waterfront homes in Southwest Florida. Survived a decade as HOA president astride the Caloosahatchee River, with trips to 20-plus foreign lands on writing assignments. Trin did not teach me all the answers. It did help me realize I could find them, if I looked in enough places, which I continue to do till this day. Now authoring

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CHECK OUT A VLW VIRTUAL EVENT!

bit.ly/VirtualLongWalk my personal memoir, Warsaw to Woodstock and White House.”

From Kevin Sullivan: “Not much news when the big events are breaks from COVID isolating for in-auto medical visits and a haircut. But hope and the vax are on the way.

Did a lot of work virtually here and in other states for Biden-Harris. Also have enjoyed catching up and doing some work with Bill Reynolds. Reunion memory: Dorming in Elton and that moment outside when first experiencing ‘Bottle Night.’ ” From John Stevenson: “Phil McGoohan passed away on January 1, 2021. After Trinity, Phil went to Tuck. In 1976, he moved to Milwaukee, where he had a long career in banking and financial services. He leaves behind three sons and two daughters.”

Michael Trigg writes: “What a contrast between this past week with the protest in D.C. and the late ’60s march in D.C. to seek an end to the Vietnam War. The latter, while we were at Trinity, had nothing to do with tearing down the Capitol or murdering the leaders of the country. The tumultuous times while at Trinity with the war, draft dodging, the draft lottery, the standoff with the trustees, the elimination of basic requirements, the admission of women, and the transfer of my best friend to Vassar all are forever in my memory. I didn’t wear a cap and gown to graduation as a protest to the war, and my parents were quite angry with me. However, I made up for it by wearing an elaborate cap and gown at my medical school graduation.

Because I coordinated all the photography for the 1970 Ivy and the 1971 Ivy and because I was never without two or three cameras, I have about a dozen pictures of Trinity activities and buildings all around my home in Tampa. Finally, and somewhat sadly, as an expert on immune function and immune incompetence, on unusual viral infections and acquisition of immunity, I would caution us not to plan any type of Reunion in person for this year … not because all of us over the age of 70 will not have yet been immunized with one of the COVID-19 vaccines but because we will have incomplete data on the duration of the immunity that we have gained. In addition, until we know for sure that the vaccines protect us from infection

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without disease, we will still need to be concerned about large groups coming together for long periods of time.”

From Margot Clement Clark: “I came to Trinity in January 1969 as an exchange student with 16 other women from Vassar with the idea of being there one semester. I immediately felt welcomed by Trinity students and faculty, and doors were literally opened for me! It was a refreshing contrast to my Vassar experience, and I ultimately transferred.”

Jeff Clark shared a memory: “After one of those good old major New England snowstorms, I remembered that some enterprising and energetic students packed the Cook archway with snow, completely blockading the passage between the Long Walk and Mather Hall. A marvelous prank! I wonder if students these days ever consider such imaginative activities.”

David Casey shares: “I think during our junior year, WRTC played the top 1,000 music hits of all time. I recorded the whole thing on reel-to-reel tapes and still have it.

The news updates on Vietnam and the protests are fascinating. When the number one hit was played, it turned out to be ‘Theme from A Summer Place,’ and there was almost a riot on campus. I have played it for some of our classmates over the years when they visit San Diego, and they really enjoy it.”

Bob Towner writes, “I’m still preaching, writing calligraphy, promoting the resistance.”

REUNION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $100,000 Class Secretary: John R. “Jack” Nelson, 55 Old Shore Rd., Old Lyme, CT 06371-1936; john.nelson.1972@trincoll. edu • Class Agents: Archibald Smith, Will Whetzel • /groups/Trinity1972 A wonderful update from William Schaeffer: “After graduation, I attempted to be a photographer and an artist, and after failing rather miserably, I became a dealer in 19thand 20th-century photographs, founding William L. Schaeffer/Photographs in 1974.”

Will has been collecting and curating American historical photographs since 1974, first in N.Y.C. and now in quaint Chester, Connecticut. He sent a link to a press release that states: “The Met receives promised gift of over 700 extraordinary photographs from the 1840s to the 1910s from the William L. Schaeffer Collection.” The collection was purchased by a Met trustee from Will specifically for the Met. Fantastic accomplishment, Will, and congratulations on a lifetime of painstaking collecting and preservation. (I’m looking forward to visiting Will’s studio soon after deadline.)

David Sutherland writes from the Cape: “I’ve retired from a 30-year career as the

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director of government relations for The Nature Conservancy’s Connecticut Chapter.

For the past several years, I’ve also served as a diversity and equity trainer for the Conservancy’s global organization and have started working with a consulting firm doing diversity trainings and planning, which I will continue in ‘retirement.’ After living most of my life in Connecticut, my wife and I have recently moved to the Outer Cape in Massachusetts. In my free time, I’ve enjoyed singing, playing guitar, and bicycling, including riding cross-country in 1974 with Peter Jessop, who later became my stepbrother after we each lost a parent.

We both still spend considerable time ‘in the saddle.’ ” Ham Clark is back at international headmastering again and offers an open invite to classmates to visit him in Dubai! “I retired from heading schools just before COVID last December, and since then, Ceci and I have been splitting our time between the ocean in Massachusetts and the Wasatch Mountains in Utah while working part time for a small educational search group, RG175.

This August, I will get back to the school world for one more year when I will become the interim head of the American School of Dubai. Perhaps I have failed retirement! All classmates are welcome to visit to take in the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, or to enjoy some indoor skiing. See you in Dubai!”

Judge Rory Cameron sent me a fun anecdote from Wisconsin. “In 2016, I retired as a circuit judge in Chippewa County, Wisconsin, after 33-plus years.

In 2009, I had a case in my courtroom and remembered from a previous hearing that the Washington, D.C.-based lawyer Jack Maitland was a star running back for Williams in 1968. Trinity lost to Williams that year, so I did a quick search on my judicial laptop and before the hearing started made a courtroom announcement: ‘Trinity 21, Williams 14 last Saturday!’ He laughed. I plan to attend the 50th Reunion in 2022.” I emailed Rory, researched a bit, and found he was appointed judge at age 33 (elected several times since) and has run 15 marathons since 1999, including Boston. You’ll find a nice article if you Google Chippewa Judge Cameron prodigy.

Tom Robinson shares news, past and present: “Harvey Zendt and I have been celebrating the 50th anniversary of the epic summer of 1970, thanks to Mike Sooley, who sent us some old photos. Classes ended early that year, and everyone made a quick exit from Trinity. I spent a few months working for an anti-war Senate campaign. Then, mid-July, Harvey and I hitched to California, down to Ensenada, Mexico, and then up the

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Q+A

Holly Hotchner ’73 the president and CEO for two years, with the charge, as the first professional museum director, to find and create a physical space and to grow visibility through exhibitions, education, and outreach. Although federal legislation has been approved to establish a women’s museum on the Mall, the building is decades away. We’re investigating starting to do exhibitions and public programs at another venue in D.C. so we don’t lose another 25 years waiting for this to happen.

DEGREES: B.A. in art history and studio arts; M.A. in art history and certificate in conservation of art and objects, the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University JOB TITLE: President and CEO, National Women’s History Museum, Washington, D.C. FAVORITE TRINIT Y MEMORY: I had my dog with me at school.

Her name was Mistress Quickly, from Shakespeare. She was a Bedlington terrier, which looks like something between a sheep and a greyhound. She was great; she attended every art history class. She went to Commencement, where I graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and my friends made her a diploma. I also have the fondest memory of the second or third student art show that we put together.

We all were serious about our careers, but there was a great deal of joy and experimentation at the same time.

What is the status of the National Women’s History Museum? Although the museum is about to be 25 years old, it remains a virtual museum, and we are diligently pursuing a physical home in Washington. It has been a long journey, like most women’s journeys. I’ve been

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What led you to this position? I’ve always worked in museums. I spent the first chunk of my career at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). I then decided to be an art conservator to bring together my interests in studio art and art history. I spent a number of years at The Met, the Tate, and the Hirshhorn Museum practicing conservation. It’s an amazing field, but it has a lot of health hazards [because of chemicals used in restoring art]. I got to the point where I wanted to create a more significant impact on preserving the larger disciplines in arts and culture rather than one object at a time. I went on to be museum director at the New-York Historical Society, New York’s oldest museum. Later, I was recruited to the American Craft Museum, where I served as director for 16 years. We created a truly interdisciplinary museum—renamed the Museum of Arts and Design—and built an extraordinary space in the epicenter of N.Y.C. A primary area of interest for me throughout my career has been in breaking down the “walls” of a museum to create interactive and inclusive environments and experiences that people are interested in partaking in, and by that, I mean everyone, not just one type of visitor. Inclusiveness has been a big issue in the cultural world and in the museum field, and I think we’ve all done a pretty bad job at that historically.

One of the great things about my new position and the reason I was initially intrigued about the

opportunity is that shockingly there is not another women’s history museum in the country. We have hundreds of contemporary art museums, we have a museum for ice cream, a museum for stamps, but there’s not one that focuses solely on women’s history, despite the fact that women make up more than 50 percent of our population.

I feel strongly in the value of creating a community and space where people can see and experience inspiring women’s stories. It’s a journey; I’ll try to take it to the next step, and hopefully others will come along.

What was it like to be part of Trinity’s first fully coeducational class? I had the idea that the men would be overjoyed to have us there. But what I found, and what many of my classmates in the arts found, is that the men didn’t want us there at all. They preferred seeing women only on the weekends, and somehow we were disrupting the peace.

Many of us were coming from coed schools, and the thinking of these men seemed so incredibly immature. We had to prove ourselves in every way. On the other hand, we had a lot of positive encouragement from the faculty all the way around. There was a great deal of enthusiasm for thought leadership, and that really helped shape my willingness to experiment and to test new creative paths in my life and career.

Which professors influenced you the most? I was lucky enough to be there at a unique moment in time, when the arts at the college were extremely experimental and vibrant. The people who taught studio arts were all artists who mainly lived in New York, and we were lucky enough to have two really inspired art history professors— Michael Mahoney and Tom Baird— who definitely trained my eye and informed and nurtured my sense of connoisseurship and how to recognize excellence. I also found my voice for activism, which has stayed with me.

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Pacific Coast Highway to Santa Cruz, surfing most of the major breaks along the way.

Late August, with classes imminent, we made a marathon hitch directly to Hartford in three days and nights. Would I recommend this to my kids? Not on your life! I am still actively campaigning, doing volunteer work, playing pickleball, and spending as much time as possible in Sun Valley with my wife, Carla Murray, who leads the West for Marriott Hotels. Our daughter is in San Francisco, and our son is a sophomore at the University of Colorado.”

Harvey once told me of their hitchhiking style: Tom would do the “thumbing,” as he was good-looking and clean-cut. Then Harvey would sit in front and cajole the driver to their desired destination, especially since he could stay up all night and drive. Coming home from California, Harvey convinced the driver, who was going to Chicago, that he should detour to N.Y.C.!

Thanks, all, for your contributions! Jack

1973

Trinity Fund Goal: $125,000 Co-Class Secretary: Diane Fierri Brown, 62 Westwood Rd., West Hartford, CT 06117; diane.brown.1973@ trincoll.edu • Co-Class Secretary: Robert P. Haff, 8 Riverbend Rd., Old Lyme, CT 063711428 • Class Agents: Jan Gimar, Ed Huntley, Patti Mantell-Broad John Gatsos writes, “Lamentably, I am dull as dirt thanks to COVID and N.Y.C. lockdowns, etc. The family time has been great with a muted Christmas celebration followed by skiing in Vermont. I feel like we have all turned back the clock to a different decade or something with everyone home all the time doing all the household chores. Kind of like Leave It to Beaver redux. Rest assured, it has caused no craving for Wonder Bread or chicken à la King. In the months leading to the elections and immediately thereafter, I have been swapping emails with various classmates, including David Bargman, Dirk Dreux, Aron Pasternack, and Robin Reif. All very thoughtful and civil despite the charged topics and environment. A tribute to our broader Trinity education.”

Mike Mitchell advises that his virtual photography exhibit at the National United Methodist Church in D.C. went live on the church’s website and consists of 36 images from the C&O Canal National Historical Park. Per the church announcement: “The Arts Council of the National United Methodist Church, which regularly offers in-person music and art to the community, now presents Virtual Travel in the Time of COVID-19 by local photographer Michael Mitchell. This collection of images captured along the C&O Canal celebrates the beauty

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of our area. The exhibit opens Sunday, January 24, at 3:00 p.m. and will remain online for 90 days. Visit at www.nationalchurch.org/Art.” Lenn Kupferberg writes that he and “Karen Fink Kupferberg are not doing much, other than staying home and venturing out for necessities. Karen’s younger brother, Mike, died suddenly (heart attack, they think).

That was a blow. We are fortunate to see our grandchildren and daughter with some regularity (they are in our COVID pod). We hope to be able to get vaccinated sometime in the next two months. Then maybe we can do something to celebrate our 45th wedding anniversary, coming up in June.”

Ric Ricci: “Coaching men’s rowing at Connecticut College in fall 2020 went better than expected given our societal health challenges. The cessation of all the fall regattas provided more time for the teams to concentrate on improving the basics of good rowing technique. Preliminary plans to resume intercollegiate competition are underway for the spring. My wife, Fawn, retired in August and is enjoying her weekly online watercolor classes. As always, our two grandchildren who live in Mystic are a joy and seem to change by the day! I am looking forward to our 50th Reunion in two years!”

Art Baldwin writes: “Just finished watching a webinar with Kevin McMahon, Cheryl Greenberg, and Susannah Heschel.

Susannah described her Trinity experience as ‘four years of heaven.’ Pretty strong recommendation from a religion professor. I feel the same way. I have been fine. I rarely go out, other than trips to the park in the morning to toss tennis balls for my daughter’s dog (she’s teaching chemistry in Indonesia … the daughter, not the dog).

When our governor closed the bike trails last March, I started riding around the block instead. It’s about a 7 percent grade, so I go tearing downhill with both hands on the brakes, then chug uphill in the lowest gear on my bike. It takes about 10 minutes to do the loop, a bit more than a mile. It’s a good workout. My best was eight laps. I handed in my laptop and badge in November, thus officially retiring. I’d worked intermittently since my intended retirement date of April 30, 2018, but not for a year. I’ve been volunteering, tutoring ‘Algebra I’ at Franklin High in Seattle and ‘Algebra II’ (last year) and ‘Geometry’ (this year) at a small parochial school for kids who haven’t been successful in other schools. I’m working my way up to the ‘Calculus’ class I took 8:00 a.m. MWF my first semester at Trinity.”

Aron Pasternack: “Hello, classmates. I suspect my update will be similar to everyone else’s. Kate and I are hunkered down

for the winter, having groceries and other necessities delivered and supporting local restaurants by ordering takeout directly from them and tipping generously. We miss seeing our friends and look forward to the warmer spring weather and the vaccination rollout. We got our first dose two weeks ago and are scheduled for the second on February 7. Hooray! Meanwhile, we are grateful for seeing family and friends via Zoom and long phone conversations, being able to work full time from home, and realizing, after 33 years, that commuting to N.Y.C. via Metro-North wasn’t all that great!

Finally, we are utterly delighted that we have a new president and that competence, empathy, and belief in science are back in the White House. Our next Reunion is only two years away, and we’re already looking forward to seeing many of you! Meanwhile: stay safe, stay strong, stay sane.”

Susan Hoffman Fishman writes, “2020 was an extremely challenging year for the art world. (And all worlds!) While museums, galleries, and artists’ residences were mostly closed, exhibitions and residencies went virtual. I participated in a number of these shows with my paintings and public art projects on water and climate change, including Global Conversations, sponsored by Google Arts & Culture, the United Nations, and F.99; Culture of Contamination, sponsored by SciArt Initiative and rescheduled for 2021 at the New York Hall of Science in Brooklyn, New York; Darkness Before Dawn at the Ethan Cohen KuBe in Beacon, New York; Resilience 2020 at the Garner Art Center in Garnerville, New York; and the Cel Del Nord Virtual Residency in Barcelona, Spain. In 2021 (so far), I will be in physical exhibitions (hopefully) at the 22 North Gallery in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and the Kingsborough Art Museum in Brooklyn, New York. Here’s hoping that 2021 brings you all good health and better days.”

Diane Fierri Brown: “Mike Mitchell references his photography exhibit in these notes. Terrific exhibit! I am the proud owner of one of his photos, a very coy, puffy owl tucked into and camouflaged by a gnarly … probably maple tree. He watches over our comings and goings in the kitchen.”

“Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.”

—Mark Twain

1974

Trinity Fund Goal: $250,000 Class Secretary: Ty E. Geltmaker, 8742 Rangely Ave., West Hollywood, CA 90048-1715; ty.geltmaker.

1974@trincoll.edu • Class Agent: Vacant Thanks to Rebecca Adams, putting up with us recalcitrants for many years. Hoping all are staying safe amid the pandemic.

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CL ASS N OT E S Rabbi Ronald W. Kaplan says it all: “L’Shalom.”

Artemis Kent calls for calm: “I am loving retirement. I don’t know why it gets such bad press! Of course, I have my health. I can do exactly what I want, picking a few hours of work that I like, no responsibilities, and only myself to please. It’s wonderful. I live near the sea in a beautiful spot in County Wicklow, Ireland. I teach piano and music theory. All online, of course, in these strange times. Life has been good to me, and I remember my Trinity days fondly.”

Lloyd Wolf witnesses history: “I’ve been busy, a new book out (Transitions) documenting ethnically diverse community in Arlington, Virginia, and four bodies of my photographs recently acquired by archives. The work of the Columbia Pike Documentary Project will be housed/ exhibited permanently at the Library of Virginia in Richmond. Another older project photographing Deadhead fans of the Grateful Dead that I did with Rebecca Adams is archived in the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives of The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Other photographs of mine recently placed in the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, and the Nikkei National Museum in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. COVID-19 severely affecting my freelance practice, held on, as have so many of us who are isolated. Hopefully the advent of the vaccine and a new administration will allow for a restoration of a sense of calm, safety, and a semblance of normalcy. I recently covered the January 6, 2021, insurrectionist riot on Capitol Hill and was in the thick of that howling mess. Thankfully I was not hurt (many journalists were beaten by the mob), and the photographs have seen wide distribution. First demonstration I ever covered was Nixon’s second counter-inaugural, for The Trinity Tripod back in January 1973, with Matthew Moloshok reporting. I’ve covered scores of protests in succeeding years, including many peaceful social justice demonstrations this past summer in the D.C. area. This recent uprising at the Capitol was beyond any understanding and sadly unprecedented in American history; the violence was horrendous and shameful. Both justice and healing are needed. I’m not ready for retirement yet. Life’s too precious and interesting. Best to all my classmates.”

Doug Sanderson counsels family and sanity: “Silver linings living under severe restrictions this pandemic has wrought.

Since graduating law school in 1977, I have resided in Northern Virginia and continue to practice commercial real estate and family law through the pandemic, though my workload suffered last year. Wife Audrey

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Goldstein, retired management consultant, and I have two children now in home, courtesy of COVID. Two silver linings. Daughter Phoebe lived in Manhattan since graduating college in 2014, working in finance. To avoid being ‘marooned’ in March 2020, we prevailed on her to stay with us. Son Scott has built his love of cooking while seeking to end COVID unemployment after using his master’s in sports management in a D.C. area trivia company until layoff. This unexpected time together has been great. We managed a weeklong August trip to Maine, unable to see Bennett Freeman in 2019. Still in touch with fellow lawyer David Bornn and retired Dr. Harry Heller, as well as Ben.” Lise Gescheidt recommends community: “Now semiretired defense lawyer, still alive and COVID free. Volunteering for the Rhode Island Responds medical team doing COVID tests in Providence. Hoping to get my vaccine shots ahead of schedule.”

David Doerge engages old friends: “I’ve been in touch with Barry O’Brien, Mike Hoskinson, and Lise Gescheidt. Living in Scottsdale, Arizona, with wife Gina and hope to meet up with Barry, Mark DeMeulenaere ’73, and friends this summer in Utah or on the Cape. We’ll invite Trinity alums for a party once we know the location.”

Richard Wolfram gets philosophical: “As for your letter to The Times, I evidently read Trump (aka, shameless-in-chief) into it (Google Ty Geltmaker NY Times opinion). Of Frank Kirkpatrick’s religion course: I often heard about it, including from Lisa Carothers and probably roommate Woody Bowman (with whom I’ve kept up in pretty regular communication); my loss not to have taken it. Same for George Higgins’s ‘Abnormal Psych,’ which, it seemed, everyone else took. I studied philosophy: Miller Brown, Drew Hyland, Richard Lee, Howard DeLong … and quite a powerful professorial quartet they were. I don’t think one could have done better at any of the other ‘Little Ivies’ for philosophy. I saw Miller a couple of years ago on campus; he was my adviser, and although Drew was the Plato scholar, Miller was the most Socratic in his teaching.” He said this all led to his career as an attorney focusing on antitrust counseling and litigation.

Barry O’Brien links Trinity to life beyond the ivy: “With wife/high school love Sandy!

She went to Central Connecticut State University for a B.S. and M.S. in special education and taught for 32 years as a special ed teacher in Connecticut; also doing alumni/ Reunion work; remembering John Allen, Mark DeMeulenaere ’73, and other North Campus High Rise mates; encouraging all to attend our 50th.”

Clare Hudson Payne contemplates COVID and horses from Maine to South Carolina:

CONSIDER A PLANNED GIFT TO TRINITY. legacy.trincoll.edu

“I haven’t written in years and thought it was about time. Here goes. I’ve been retired now for four years. I loved working as an attorney for 37 years, but I equally love being retired. Lew ’72 and I moved to Brooksville on the Maine coast in summer 2019. A wonderful old house where I tend the perennial beds left by prior owner, marveling at how beautiful Maine is. We have room for our children and grandchildren to join us, lots last summer after camps fizzled and I became a COVID babysitter. But, not a fan of the cold, my horse and I travel to Aiken, South Carolina, for winter, sixth year now. I read, including audiobooks, mostly British murder mysteries. I am thankful my life has been relatively sane during COVID but know that is not the case for many people. I hope by the time this article is published, we will have some relief from the upheaval it has caused.”

Yours truly cautiously recovering from Trumpian anxiety, knowing fascism is always still around the corner, at work on Ernesto Nathan: The Third Rome’s First Jewish Mayor.

1975

Trinity Fund Goal: $200,000 Co-Class Secretary: Steven E. Hirsch, 2200 N. Ocean Blvd., Unit N1101, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33305-1994; steven.hirsch.1975@trincoll.edu • Co-Class Secretary: Christopher G. Mooney, 303 Compass Point Dr., #202, Bradenton, FL 34209; christopher.mooney.1975@ trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Betsy Kellogg Hamilton, Susanne Tilney, Richard F. Tucci • /groups/59654675586 Hey, ’75ers! A limited response for this edition of The Trinity Reporter, but from Chuck Levine we hear the following. “I am happily retired and focusing on not-for-profit endeavors. One of the groups I help lead generated the first operating agreement with California State Parks. We have been operating Jack London State Historic Park for the past nine years. Our attendance has doubled, and we have been able to quadruple spending in support of the park, addressing some of the backlog of capital projects as well as managing and improving trails and exhibits.

I also mentor entrepreneurs through SCORE, a national not-for-profit funded in part by

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the Small Business Administration. Finally, I publish a weekly COVID-19 newsletter. It is focused on our local area, but I have readers around the world.”

REUNION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $400,000 Class Secretary: Robert A. Gibson, 84 Colony Rd., New Haven, CT 065112812; robert.gibson.1976@trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Phil Bieluch, Roger Bowie, Mike Gilman, Chip Goode, Terry Michel Gumz, Lisa Heilbronn, Hobie Porter From Charlie Kellner: “Under very difficult circumstances, I was able to spend the better part of a weekend in January 2020 with Barry Ehrlich, Paul Saner, and Mel Shuman as well as Bob Pollak ’77 and Nancy Riemer Kellner ’78 as we all attended a memorial service for our friend David Hobbs, who passed away in December 2019. While we had more than a few laughs over dinner on Friday evening reminiscing about our times together at Trinity and for years thereafter, and while we all agreed that in countless ways David was an inspiration to all of us, it is really difficult to accept the fact of his passing.

The memorial service was a moving tribute to him. While it included numerous stories detailing various escapades (thanks, Mel), it also included many poignant tributes from people who knew David where he lived and worked.”

Two notes from the Alumni Office: Margaret E. “Peggy” Smith writes, “I’d like to extend a shout-out to my sorority sister, Soror Kamala Harris, vice president of the United States. We are members of the oldest Black sorority in our nation’s history, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. The AKAs were founded in 1908 at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Pink and green forever!”

Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) announced that its president, Will Baker, will retire at the end of 2021.

1976

REUNION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $90,000 Class Secretary: Mary Desmond Pinkowish, 15 Lafayette Rd., Larchmont, NY 10538-1920; mary. pinkowish.1977@trincoll.edu • Class Agent: Stephen M. Sunega • /TrinityCollege 77 Thanks to all who wrote! So good to hear from you. I’m writing this in early February, and of course, we’re all hoping that the COVID-19 situation has improved markedly by the time you read this.

Rick Dubiel reports the birth of his third grandchild, born to his son Brian, who also is a Trin grad. So, Rick is thinking maybe a third-generation Bantam? Hmm …

A common theme from our correspondents this winter has been social-distancing

1977

S P R I N G 2021

fatigue. Two examples follow from Margo Halle and Deb Flower, but keep reading because our classmates Gil Childers and Eric Luskin offer a couple of potential solutions for your COVID-19-related ennui.

Margo writes: “Happy 2021! Not much to report since we can’t do anything. I have managed to stay connected and reconnect with some Trin alumni via Zoom, text, and email. Thankfully we have technology to assist! So many cherished memories rekindled with special, irreplaceable friends.

My husband and I just got Moderna dose 1 yesterday in Baltimore, which is akin, I imagine, to winning the lottery. Certainly hope everyone has the opportunity soon so we can resume our ‘normal’ lives. Stay safe!”

And a tantalizing bit from Deb: “When I say nothing is happening, I mean nothing is happening. We have weekly Zoom calls with our two kids/partners, and this past Sunday, we gave up on our call after about a half hour of asking what was new (nothing), how about you (nothing), and turning the camera to our pets to watch them sleep. Hopefully, as we all get vaccinated and things such as travel and gatherings are possible, I’ll have more news in the fall.”

And Gil’s solution: “Anyone who is looking for another thing to watch during corona quarantine could check out Fear City on Netflix. It’s a three-part documentary series on an organized crime trial I was involved with in the 1980s. For me it was a real trip down memory lane, and if you are interested in mafia lore at all, it is well worth it. Personally, I enjoyed seeing pictures of myself when I still had hair.”

How about some music? Here’s what Eric offers: “Greetings, Trinity friends. It’s been a while since I’ve checked in. I’m still alive and well, still working in the public television world and still having occasional nightmares where I forgot to turn in a paper at Trinity and thus never actually graduated. My wife, Terry, and I downsized in October and are now residents of Sherborn, Massachusetts. It’s a bit more rural and thus easier to maintain social distance, which, hopefully, will be of less importance as 2021 unfolds. Music continues to be a helpful hobby. Check out sidestreettheband.com and ditchthemuumuu.bandcamp.com to sample some geezer folk rock and other peculiar delights. We happily spend money we don’t have making music that few will ever hear. Apparently, I should have taken some business courses back in the day. Stay well, everyone.”

To Eric’s point about the Trinity nightmares and forgotten papers—does anyone else experience this? About once a year, I dream that while playing some pinball after lunch at Mather on a Friday, it dawns on me

that I forgot to drop a course. The final is on Monday morning. But I convince myself that if I study through every minute of the weekend, I will pass that test. That’s when I jolt to consciousness.

Again, thanks to all for writing.

1978

Trinity Fund Goal: $225,000 Class Secretary: Jory F. Lockwood, 67 Scarlet Oak Dr., Wilton, CT 06897-1014; jory.lockwood.1978@trincoll. edu • Class Agents: Bob Carey, Vivi Dunklee Duke, Charles Glanville, Tom Lenahan, George Malhame, Andrew Terhune • /groups/ TrinityCollege78 Dan Howe dropped by on the internet to share this with his classmates: “I hope to see Smitty and fellow Bantam Floyd Monroe on Sunday in Lake Mary, Florida. They are coming to support me as I am being ordained as a pastor in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. I have been studying for several years in a pastoral development program at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis and will serve at Wellspring Church in DeLand, Florida. We will make sure we get a picture of us together for you when they are in town.

Blessings to you.”

Donald S. Irish has joined those who contribute to the Reporter. Yeah! “Well, this is my first time sharing for Class Notes, but I’m happy to inform all that I retired on July 2020. Thank you, COVID (no longer felt safe commuting into Manhattan). Now looking forward to writing my next life chapters!”

Our class president, Tom Lenahan, has lots of family joy. “I wanted to share that Carol and I were fortunate enough to have a couple of very bright spots during this strange pandemic with the arrival of two granddaughters! Matt ’04 and Christine’s Eve arrived on May 7, and my daughter, Karen Lenahan, and Alex Esdaile ’06 (and Matt’s teammate on the football team) had Asa on December 19, making it a beautiful Christmas in spite of not seeing either baby for much longer than normal. Eve joins 3-year-old sister Charley and brother Matty, and Asa joins big sister Emi. So, our little world is growing, and number 10 and 11 grandchildren certainly made 2020 more memorable for us than how unsettling life has been for so many. Frankly, having their births as our focal point with the prospect of getting the whole family together sometime later this summer or fall keeps us going. We hope this fall brings with it the return of normal activities for all families and for some of us graying Bantams, who appreciate the athletic events that allow us to celebrate life with old friends and their families as we have for many years.”

Your class secretary—that’s me, Jory Lockwood—is, probably like many of you, ready for a vaccine and a return to something

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closer to normal. I’ll turn 65 in July and am just a bit envious of those who already qualify for the shot(s). I am doing miles and miles of hiking in Connecticut and have completed the State of Connecticut Sky’s the Limit Hiking Challenge, the Charles Ives Trail Challenge, and Steep Rock’s 3 Peaks Challenge. Grinding those miles gets me outside in some very, very beautiful places (there are a lot of those in Connecticut) and helps me sleep better at night. I’ll be able to look back at the COVID years and say that I explored the beautiful parts of Connecticut.

It’s not the same as a Broadway show in the city, but it will do for now.

Two notes from the Alumni Office: Deborah Buck recently continued her commitment to supporting the arts at Trinity by once again funding the Deborah Buck Post-Baccalaureate Fellows Program for 2021–22. During the winter, Trinity’s Widener Gallery hosted an exhibition of the work of the Buck Fellows. The exhibition was highlighted online at dsp.domains.trincoll.edu/ studio-arts-in-three/. Buck, a prolific artist and philanthropist, continues her ongoing generosity to the college with this renewed commitment.

Jim Shepard’s story “The World to Come,” part of a collection in a book by the same name, recently was made into a movie. The film, with stars including Casey Affleck (Oscar winner for Manchester by the Sea) and Vanessa Kirby (The Crown), won the 77th Venice International Film Festival’s Queer Lion Award for best LGBTQ-themed film. It also was shown at Cinestudio in March.

1979

Trinity Fund Goal: $175,000 Co-Class Secretary: James M.G. Cropsey, 376 Sanborn Rd., Tilton, NH 03276-5729; james.cropsey.1979@trincoll. edu • Co-Class Secretary: Kenneth C. Crowe II, 395 State St., Apt. 4F, Albany, NY 122101214; kenneth.crowe.1979@trincoll.edu • Co-Class Secretary: Diane Molleson, 4375 Kimberly St., Richland, WA 99352-8477; diane.molleson.1979@trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Barlow Peelle, Susan Tananbaum We always get some far-ranging news. Let’s start north of Hartford in Vermont, where Aldrich Wright took time to write as he starts on his next adventure. “I’m retired and living in Brattleboro, Vermont, after working for 40 years in IT at various banks and other financial institutions. I’m working part time at a group home for autistic adults and trying to start up my own software company (which I realize is a long shot). My third grandchild is due to arrive in July. I’m looking forward to becoming vaccinated so I can visit them. Our senior year’s championship football team in the fall of 1978 is a force of unity. In January, the college celebrated the team with the

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virtual event ‘Season of Champions,’ which was co-hosted by our own John Flynn and Michael Foye. They were joined by former coaches Rick Hazelton and Don Miller. It’s always a pleasure when the Bantams defeat archrival Wesleyan.”

Michael wrote to say they expected to have several classmates join the event. He was right. George Brickley and Bill Hagan tuned in. George said he enjoyed the virtual celebration of the 1978 Trinity College football team. “It was fun to see so many of our classmates remotely. Hopefully, we will all be able to gather in person real soon and really enjoy ourselves. Go Bants!”

But more importantly in the Brickley household (which apparently has more Trinity alumni per capita than any other place in the world), they celebrated a wedding in California, heading there from Massachusetts. George and wife Cindy Higgins Brickley ’80 were in San Francisco at the tail end of 2020 to see son George ’10 get married on New Year’s Eve to Maddy McDonnell. George and Cindy’s daughter Hannah ’14 and son Charlie also were in the wedding party.

Back to football, Bill Hagan gave us the basics for the game’s setting: “It was an away game; Trinity and Wesleyan were both 6–1, and Wesleyan had painted on their field ‘7–1’ on the assumption they were going to win! An object lesson in the value of humility.” Bill also participated in another Zoom meeting organized by current football coach Jeff Devanney that brought together football alumni who went on to become lawyers and current Trinity players who are contemplating going to law school after graduation.

Here’s Bill’s account: “We shared some of our stories, and the players asked very thoughtful questions. These young men made me even prouder to be a Trinity alum, and I didn’t think that was possible.”

The football team did more than win a championship in 1978. It also was a source of income for the minor sports like fencing.

While the football team was on the field, other teams were selling programs, refreshments, etc.

There are many different ways to stay connected to the college. Susan Tananbaum has taken on one of the more challenging roles by volunteering to serve as a class agent to help in fundraising. Susan will help Barlow Peelle, who became class agent two years ago at Reunion. We’re three years away from our 45th in 2024.

On an overseas note, Gus Reynolds wrote from Thailand to say that he’s embarked in a new direction. “Our hotel, restaurant, and wine bar businesses in Thailand have been closed since last March, so I started back to work on a music project that had been sitting

on the shelf. The music show is called The First Note, and the hosts take a lighthearted travel back in time to discover the origins of some of your favorite songs. They travel through time in their ‘Laid Back Way Back Time Machine’ to listen to many great versions of the song of the week. Every Saturday night at 11:00 p.m., the show is broadcast on Homegrown Radio at www.homegrownradionj.com. If that’s past your bedtime, or if you want to go back to listen to previous shows, you can go to www.thefirstnotes.com and select a song. Songs include ‘House of the Rising Sun,’ ‘Black Magic Woman,’ ‘The Thrill is Gone,’ and many more. We invite you to join our next adventure.”

On a point of reflection, you may have seen in the winter 2021 issue of The Trinity Reporter that we lost Joy Tomlinson in July 2020 and Christine “Nina” Wainwright in June 2020. Please take a moment to recall them and their time with all of us on campus.

Two notes from the Alumni Office: Peter Ziesing recently retired from Chubb Tempest Re after a 41-year career in reinsurance. He and wife Jo have three grown children, all of whom were raised in New Canaan. A self-described “card-carrying library member,” Peter is a longtime New Canaan resident and active volunteer. During the 1990s, he spent time on the board of the New Canaan YMCA, serving as chair (1999–2001) during its 1999–2003 Capital Campaign. He also has served on the board of the Country Club of New Canaan in various roles. Peter observes, “The table has been set for the library’s future by this talented group of professionals and volunteers. As a veteran of another major capital campaign here in town and a volunteer for Staying Put, which partners with the library to serve our seniors, I am delighted to dedicate my experience to this historic project.”

Tom Knowlton writes: “I’m a Class of ’79 Trinity alumnus and have only fond memories of my time spent in Hartford. Since the early ’90s and after getting an M.P.A. at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, my career has been centered around corporate social responsibility, working with Fortune 500 companies to plan, implement, and measure their corporate citizenship initiatives. In January 2021, I launched my own firm in response to the growing need for specialized talent that I saw among companies of every size and industry looking to respond—quickly—to the unfolding of BLM, COVID-19, extreme weather, and beyond.

CSR Talent Group is the first global platform of CSR, ESG, and sustainability experts who are helping companies with short-term, interim, or long-term corporate citizenship needs. We’re the Upwork, Fiverr, etc. for CSR—on-demand talent accessible through

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one centralized hub. Just two months since our launch, and we have three well-known brands as clients, and with that, confidence that we’re filling a need.”

1980

Trinity Fund Goal: $400,000 Class Secretary: Elizabeth Davison Hyde, 8801 Cheltenham Ave., Wyndmoor, PA 19038-7125; elizabeth. hyde.1980@trincoll.edu • Class Agents: William Bullard, Tom Casey, Scott Lessne, Kate Youngdahl Stauss • / groups/112435390839 NRBQ’s “Ridin’ In My Car” just came on Apple Music as I am writing this. Nothing like a space rocket to Trinity College, and I am 19 years old all over again! Lisa Parker, whom I follow on Facebook with her wonderful photographs and travels, reflected on her trip to Argentina and Chile in February 2020. She described Patagonia as awe-inspiring and Buenos Aires as having a heavy European influence with a wonderful Latin flair. More recently, she’s been staying close to home in New England, spending her retirement working as the grants chair for The Women’s Fund of Essex County, a fundraising organization that grants money to nonprofits focused on the needs of at-risk women and girls. She said it’s challenging and fulfilling, especially in these difficult times.

Bill Engel, Nick B. Williams Professor of English at Sewanee, The University of the South, has been ensconced on the beautiful 13,000-acre campus high atop the Cumberland Plateau since the beginning of the outbreak in March 2020. He missed his overseas conferences and deferred his fall residential fellowship at Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel (in Lower Saxony). But on the upside, he has signed contracts on several volumes that will be completed during his sabbatical. The Shakespearean Death Arts: Hamlet among the Tombs (Palgrave Macmillan); The Death Arts in Renaissance England: A Critical Anthology (Cambridge); and The Printer as Author in Early Modern English Book History (Routledge), which was the subject of a segment on NPR’s The Academic Minute.

David Pfeiffer wrote that they are in “lockdown London,” where they have lived since 2020. They have really enjoyed living there.

He’s still working a second career of running a small trading company, currently from home. His kids are in their 20s in the United States and went to their house for December and January. He said thank goodness for Zoom as it’s allowed them to stay in close touch and even to reach out to friends he’s lost track of.

Cynthia Ballantyne is happy in their new retirement routine in North Carolina,

S P R I N G 2021

Men’s squash boosters and 1980 classmates Steve Yarnall, Carol Goldberg, Beth Hyde, Steve “Slado” Slade, Rob Dudley, John Burchenal, and Page Lansdale join Coach Paul Assaiante at the Trinity vs. Princeton match in February 2020. The Bantams were victorious that day in Princeton’s Jadwin Gym, with a 5–4 win. Beth said that Slado takes the lead in getting the group together and that his house, just off campus, is their “base camp” for meals and some overnight stays.

enjoying the rain rather than all the Boston snow. Her son had a very small COVID wedding rather than wait another year, which she thought was a great thing to do even though they could not be there. As of February, Cynthia was looking forward to seeing her three sons in person as they were coming to visit in March now that she and Tom have been vaccinated.

We had hoped to have our 40th Reunion June 10–13, 2021. Please keep in touch, and let me know what you are up to. Beth

REUNION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $175,000 Co-Class Secretary: Susan Walsh Ober, 130 Skyline Dr., Millington, NJ 07946; susan.ober.1981@trincoll.edu • Co-Class Secretary: Tabitha N. Zane, 1620 Kersley Cir., Lake Mary, FL 32746-1923; tabitha.zane.1981@trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Rob Aiello, Liz Carrigan Boyle, Jo Lauriello • /groups/391695640890482 Tracy Newman Benham wrote to say that she and her husband Bill’s son Jonathan married Megan Cadena on December 27, 2020, in a very small but perfect wedding. Tracy has for 21 years been the volunteer coordinator at Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo and is happy to give private tours, especially to her Trinity friends! Tracy says it combines her great loves: kids, animals, environmental education, and community!

From Barry Bergquist: “What’s your Trinity list? Mine—Frank Kirkpatrick, Richard Crawford, Michael R.T. Mahoney, John Dando, Jay West, Ward Curran, George Cooper—Trin professors who yanked me ahead into the diverse world, set me afloat armed with a broad set of ideas to deal with life; they’re still very much a part of me. The meaning of Trinity: 42 years later, To Kill A Mockingbird, Broadway, selfie with Mark

1981

Bronsky ’83 and physiology professor John E. Simmons. Life propelled by Sigill Coll Trin Sanc. Fortune’s Wheel.”

Lisa Hunt is “safe and sound here in Fairfax, California. Working in the bike industry, I’ve been extremely busy, as it’s been a booming time for bike sales!”

Izzy Lerman has a clinical psychology practice in Summit, New Jersey, and two daughters living and working in N.Y.C., one of whom is getting married in the summer of 2021. Izzy is in touch with Isabelle Aronsohn, who lives in Boca Raton, and Donna Hunnicutt ’82, who lives in Laguna Niguel, California. Izzy would happily host a Jarvis reunion on Zoom.

Sue Walsh Ober left the COVID-doomed au pair business for the thriving mortgage industry, joining Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation in November. Sue will be an empty nester come September 2021, when her youngest leaves to become a freshman at Union College. Sue plans to look up Barry Bergquist and Jean Hayden when she explores Salt Lake City for her retirement.

She was especially sad to read of the death of Jim Corvino in the winter Reporter.

Wendy Melville Mains writes that the highlight of 2020 was the birth of their second grandchild, Oliver Kenneth, in November. Wendy and her family spent a week at an Airbnb in Hilton Head in June.

“We self-quarantined and enjoyed each other’s company immensely in our paradise away from home.” Wendy noted that living in Louisville, they have been focused on increasing their social and racial justice awareness. She is looking forward to getting vaccinated and being able to travel again, hopefully in 2021.

Ed Theurkauf: “All is as well here as can be expected. Got my second hip replacement last year, so biking and cross-country skiing

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CL ASS N OT E S can continue! Dave Conwell moved to Maine, joining Rob Pollien and Kristen West Grant in the Pine Tree State. I hear from all of them on social media, and when I’m lucky, have excellent visits from Dave and Kris. Things to resume post COVID. Family and work are all good, so I count myself among the most fortunate.”

Ginger Brennan lives in Morristown and is the mother of three. She has been in the financial services industry since graduating from Trinity and will be celebrating 40 years with Aetna (now Voya) in June. Several years ago on a trip to Europe, she sat next to a gentleman on the airplane who had immigrated to the United States 25 years ago from Lithuania and was returning home for a vacation. It turns out they lived 30 minutes from each other in New Jersey and had a lot in common. He asked her out, and they are getting married on June 12 of this year.

Ginger saw Susan Taylor-Leduc while in Paris.

Sarah Neilly: “I have been very busy all year working in a telemedicine position covering four hospitals’ ICU patients at night during the pandemic. It has been grueling and frustrating to say the least. Very hard to watch people dying from this disease when you cannot help them. We all need to be very aware and careful about coronavirus even though we are all tired of it! Masks always outside your home. Get vaccinated.

Meanwhile trying to juggle helping my siblings caring for our aged parents at home.

I really love hearing from my Trinity friends online; it’s such a boost to morale. I can’t wait to be able to gather in person. I also have three kids, two of whom are in college.

They are seriously getting ripped off if you look at their college experience compared to ours! We were so lucky. I have a lot of great memories from Trinity and hope you all are healthy and doing well. My favorite hobbies in the pandemic are walking my rescue dog June with my husband and reading historical novels. Best wishes to all!”

David Giblin started in a new role as senior strategic adviser at Alivia Analytics, part of the senior management team developing a suite of software to reduce fraud waste and abuse in health care payments. It’s an exciting new start-up in the Boston area.

REUNION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $175,000 Class Secretary: Ellin Carpenter Smith, 932 Windsor Ave., Windsor, CT 06095-3422; ellin.smith.1982@trincoll. edu • Class Agents: Patty Hooper Kelley, Tom Mathews, Bill Talbot • /groups/ TrinColl1982 These past couple of months have given us some glimmers of sunshine peeking through this long tunnel we find ourselves in. Zoom

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continues to be our virtual meeting place.

I have been enjoying reconnecting with old friends, including a round of special 60th birthday Zoom gatherings with Victoria Lenkeit Scanlon (a few doors down in Windsor, Connecticut), Barbara Sherman Levison (now in Florida), Lucida DiMaria DeLorenzo (also in Connecticut), Minnie Mahoney Hickes (in Massachusetts), and Karen Miller Boudreau (in Seattle).

Some happy news from classmate Margaret McCandless Evans, who received a Christmas Eve proposal and now is engaged to a wonderful man, Westford James Cosgrove Jr. Nuptials are planned for this December. The two will be moving to a lovely property in northern Litchfield County. Nice to know that 2020 was marked by joyful moments.

In a recent conversation, Ellen Lasch shared news of daughter Katie Sadé’s graduation from Trinity in 2018. “It was special to refresh some of the lovely memories that I have from my time there and also watch her fall in love with the college.” She has enjoyed hearing from Barb Sherman Levison, Gwen Illick Neumann, Annemarie Brown Taylor, and Jennifer Prost. She also has plans to Zoom with Peggy Kenton, Michelle Buonocore, and Megan White. On a professional front, we learned that she is immersed in an exciting new venture— embracing the challenge of building an online start-up. Myrosycheeks.com leverages the growing field of telemedicine to deliver prescription anti-aging skin care without the need to visit a doctor or pharmacy. As always, Ellen demonstrates a willingness to roll up her sleeves and get the job done. “In my ‘glamorous’ role as CEO, I mostly can be found at home in Pelham, New York, hunched over my laptop fighting with Facebook Ads Manager or down in the basement boxing up products for runs to the UPS store.”

Our class has the distinction of the most classmates currently serving on the Board of Trustees. Steve Elmendorf, Craig Vought, and Rhea Pincus Turteltaub have stepped up and also are serving on a couple of strategically significant commissions. Several of us had the opportunity to get an update from Steve and Craig on a recent Zoom call. Matt Smith and I were joined by Scott Cassie, Carl Rapp, Andy Fox, and Sara Klocke Scarfone. During this conversation, our trustees shared their experiences and discussed initiatives and work of the committees they serve as well as a look ahead to Trinity’s future.

Steve chairs the Marketing and Communications Subcommittee, whose task it is to help differentiate Trinity and its unique value proposition in the minds of all of our stakeholders—prospective

and current students, faculty, alumni, and even our community. He outlined some of the external challenges facing liberal arts institutions such as ours. Demographically, the number of potential college-aged young adults is trending downward, especially in New England—which is a strong draw for us—reducing the pool of applicants.

That said, Craig, who is serving on the Enrollment Subcommittee, shared encouraging news about the success that our admissions team has been having attracting high-caliber students. Both he and Steve have spent considerable time meeting with faculty, and they were pleased to hear the positive comments from professors regarding the quality of the students in recent years. Craig shared some interesting admissions stats comparing Trinity today with 42 years ago when we started. Class size is now around 575, which is up more than 150 from our arrival in 1978. He also shared the success Trinity is having in attracting a consistent balance of men and women at a time when other liberal arts colleges are having some trouble attracting men. And he highlighted all the meaningful ways that the students of today are more diverse, not just ethnically and economically but internationally. He credited former Trinity Vice President for Enrollment and Student Success Angel Pérez’s work in applying a more holistic approach to evaluating prospective students.

They also lauded the recent uptick in giving during the pandemic, with strong support coming from alumni and parents.

On another note, mention was made of President Joanne Berger-Sweeney assembling a special commission on Trinity’s future. Trinity is offering a fascinating array of educational programming through the Virtual Long Walk (check out the latest at bit.ly/VirtualLongWalk).

We talked about the age-old parental concern about job placement after graduation. With the rising cost of a college degree, increasingly we see how prospective students are focusing on “outcomes,” the new term for postgrad paying jobs. Here, the conversation focused on value of internships, which always has been one of Trinity’s strengths, as an avenue for exploring career interests early on.

How encouraging it is to see our alma mater prioritizing embracing experiential and lifelong learning and professional preparation. Bottom line, we are grateful to have three dedicated representatives from our class investing their time and talents to help our alma mater see a brighter way through this most challenging of times.

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1983

Trinity Fund Goal: $325,000 Class Secretary: Thomas M. McKeown, 2400 Winding Hollow Ln., Plano, TX 73093-4109; thomas.mckeown.1983@ trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Todd Beati, Tim Dillon Clarke, H. Scott Nesbitt, David Walker • /groups/295955824253432 Dom Rapini writes that his family is healthy with heads down working or schooling from home via the dreaded Zoom. Dom is in his 24th year at Apple; as a fellow technology worker, I can tell you it is quite an accomplishment to be with one company for that long. He also continues pursuing his favorite political issues when not selling Macs and iPhones.

Al Strickler continues to enjoy the benefits of being a non-empty nester with his three adult offspring hunkering down with him and his wife. Al also passed on the sad news that we lost another member of the Trinity ’83 family with the passing of Jim Frederick.

His AD brothers put out a nice tribute to him, and we all grieve with his wife, Doreen, and their four children.

The University of Virginia Law School is the next stop for Jeff Bamonte’s daughter Lauren, who will be attending in the fall following her graduation from Vanderbilt this May. Jeff still runs sales and customer engagement at Novocure in Tennessee.

Continuing on the education front, my son Brian will be one of 11,000 freshmen to begin studies at Texas A&M next fall. Not that I thought our freshman class of 450 at Trinity back in 1979 was huge, but the size and population of College Station, Texas, continues to amaze me.

Just got a last-minute submission from Jim Dooley, whom we’ve not heard from recently.

He also was close to Jim Frederick and is mourning his good friend. But on a lighter note, Jim is bucking to be the oldest parent in the car-pool line and recently took his 9-year-old son to orthodontist Mark Bronsky.

My math may be a little hazy, but I think Chuck Petridis has a 9-year-old as well, so it might be a tie. Good energy, boys!

That’s all we’ve got for this edition.

Hopefully, in a few months, many of us will have gotten the COVID vaccine and can begin traveling again to provide those ripping yarns of great adventure. Until then, take care, and stay safe.

1984

Trinity Fund Goal: $60,000 Class Secretary: Susan M. Greene, 89 Staniford St., Apt. 3, Auburndale, MA 02466-1128; susan. greene.1984@trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Sal Anzalotti, Erin Poskocil • /groups/ trincoll84 Just a not-so-subtle reminder: if you enjoy reading Class Notes, please send your news

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to Classof1984Trinity@gmail.com. You don’t have to wait for my tortured email pleas!

Jim Kirby: “Steve Cook, Jim Streeto, Mike Ziskind, and I have been visiting via Zoom off and on for the last few months. Although we haven’t solved all of the world’s problems, we have been discussing many of them, along with a smattering of ‘dad jokes.’

I don’t hear from any other Trinity alumni except through Christmas cards. I continue working at Quinnipiac as an associate professor of chemistry.”

Michele Rosner Saunders: “What a year 2020 was. I remain hopeful that 2021 will bring all of us good health, happiness, and success in every way. As for me, I am enjoying my work as a mindset coach, busy launching my new coaching program for women called ‘Reignite Now!’ (www.thrive365coach.com). I coach ambitious women at a crossroads in their life who have lost their confidence—after raising kids, going through a divorce, or taking an extended career break that they didn’t choose—to reignite their purpose and passion and create their chapter three. It is truly inspiring work. My husband and I are still in New Jersey, and our kids are out in California: our son, 24, is in law school, and our daughter, 21, is working in the music industry. I must say the more snow we get, the more that West Coast sunshine is calling our name! I wish all of you all the best and hope to have an in-person Reunion not too far in the distant future.”

Lisa Marinello Jones: “Life with the pandemic interrupted a Trinity couple getting married. Class of 2015 Trinity alums Samantha Jones (my daughter) and her fiancé, Brendan Oliver, were to be married in Boston on August 29, 2020. The ‘save the date’ was then changed to ‘change the date’ for July 31, 2021. We look forward to the wedding (however it may be) and being with many Trinity alum as we celebrate this very special couple.”

Blythe Bachmann Everett: “As you might imagine, I could fill a book with reflections on the considerable challenges of leading, working, and living at a boarding school during a pandemic. To summarize, we dismissed all students for the March 2020 break and abruptly shifted to online learning for the entire spring term. The ‘COVID soup’ of memory of the past 10 months—punctuated by the occasional vivid image of strange milestones like a first-ever virtual graduation weekend—is more generally characterized by exhaustive communication with families and employees amid a hazy swirl of endless hours spent in Zoom meetings and webinars as we, other boarding schools, and the rest of the education world tried to figure out how to teach remotely, subsequently operate safely, and somehow reconvene students

for in-person learning during a worldwide health crisis. Innumerable hours of planning paid off in that my school has made it without a single case of COVID on campus since welcoming students back in late August! I hope to be able to say the same in June. Hope you and my fellow ’84 classmates are well and surviving with grace and a healthy sense of humor.”

1985

Trinity Fund Goal: $375,000 Class Secretary: Stephen J. Norton, 9 Ninth St. SE, Washington, D.C. 20003-1333; stephen.norton.1985@trincoll. edu • Class Agents: Annette Boelhouwer, Bill Detwiler, Chris Doyle, Suzy Rittenberg Dyer, Ann Kezer Lazarus-Barnes, Angelo Lopresti, Steve Norton, John Wilson • /groups/715110825227355 We all continue to cope as circumstances allow, taking added measure of how precious family and friends are and hoping that the light at the end of the tunnel is not an oncoming train or, for that matter, a torch-bearing mob.

Just in the nick of time, Bonnie Adams Connors, Louise Williams Senopoulos, Toria Arvanitis Jenks, and Nany McKeown Aboyan gathered at Bonnie’s condo in Florida in early 2020. “We had way too much fun and a lot of laughs. We are all doing well and are very grateful for our (gulp!) nearly 40-year friendship!” Nancy said.

With fingers crossed, Alison Berlinger Holland is looking forward to a 2022 wedding for oldest son Blake, who lives in Seattle.

Her other two sons are finishing degrees.

She and husband Dave spend most weekends in the Georgia mountains, getting outside as much as possible. “I feel very lucky to have been able to stay close to my family when so many have been separated for months,” she wrote. “And honestly, being stuck together, especially in those early months, was really a balm to our toobusy schedules.” Her dad and both sisters were part of their COVID bubble, while her brother was happily ensconced in London.

She sells antique and vintage furniture locally. “It is fun and satisfies my shopping penchant while also being good to the environment, keeping pieces out of landfills,” she said.

Peter Eisler continues to report for Reuters in the D.C. area, focusing more on long-term investigative pieces. He said he and wife Mimi (Hall ’86) were readjusting to a quiet house after having their two sons home from college over the holidays. Like most of us, email and the occasional Zoom call have been his only contact with Trinity friends.

He added, “We’re all mourning the loss last year of our dear friend (and my longtime musical partner) Chuck Caspari ’89. He’s at

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CL ASS N OT E S

BECOME A CLASS AGENT.

www.trincoll.edu/ AlumniAndFamilies/ Volunteer/Class-Agents

the heart of a lot of our Trinity memories, and it’s a reminder to treasure those old friendships.”

Not surprisingly, one of our most musical classmates, Floyd Higgins, said he and wife Gretchen have been frustrated not being able to lead or participate in choral singing but are trying to stay busy with various home projects. Their son, David, who is 22, finished training for a position with Mercedes that will put him in Hartford for the next two years. Before the pandemic set siege, they and several “musical friends,” including Ted Coxe, Mike Connelly, Diann Chamberlain Levin and hubby Roger Levin ’84, Maria Lavieri ’84 and husband, Ann Brown ’83, and a few others enjoyed a get-together at Professor Gerry Moshell’s place in Ledyard, Connecticut. Meanwhile, Floyd is building pipe organs full time at Austin Organs in Hartford. He recently installed an organ at DeSales University in Pennsylvania, where Mike Connelly has a child.

Two years ago, Rabbi Paul Kipnes, who lives in Southern California, took his synagogue, Congregation Or Ami, online when the Woolsey Fire forced them from their building for a month. Thus, the growing community was inadvertently well prepared for COVID. Earlier this year, Paul reflected upon it all in an article that went viral from his blog paulkipnes.com: “After 11 deaths in 11 days, I had it out with God.” He gets together semi-regularly online with Trinity roommates Jerome Kapelus ’86, Ben Rhodes ’86, and Erik Smith ’86.

As for your class secretary, I relish doing errands on Capitol Hill on foot because it is the only chance to see people I know other than my wife, Alison, an overworked and highly principled self-employed lobbyist.

(Not that I can recognize anyone’s half face through my fogged-up lenses.) Like many of you finding empty nesting interrupted, I realized how much I love it when the kids are home and how I love it when they’re away.

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REUNION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $200,000 Class Secretary: Jeffrey J. Burton, 57 Chestnut St., Boston, MA 021083506; jeffrey.burton.1986@trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Lori Laub, Molly Schnorr-Dunne, Rich Stetson, Philip Wellman From the Alumni Office: William G. Thomas III’s new book, A Question of Freedom: The Families Who Challenged Slavery from the Nation’s Founding to the Civil War (Yale University Press), won the 2021 Mark Lynton History Prize. The honor is one of the J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project Awards, given by Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard for the best in American nonfiction writing. Thomas is an author, historian, and the John and Catherine Angle Chair in the Humanities and professor of history at the University of Nebraska.

1986

REUNION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $200,000 Class Secretary: Michael G. Donovan, Esq., 94 Bowman St., Westborough, MA 01581-3102; michael.donovan.1987@ trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Bob Edmunds, John Self, John Tucker, Bryant Zanko • /groups/trin1987 Lisa Van Riper is moving from Northern Virginia to Illinois in March for her new role heading up communications for Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. She looks forward to connecting with Bantams in the Greater Chicago area. Lisa’s daughter is 15 and starting to consider colleges. Future Bantam, perhaps?

William Manger has had a very busy 2020.

He is wrapping up his tenure at the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), where he was head of the Office of Capital Access.

In addition, for the last 10 months of 2020, he also was assigned to be chief of staff. He was responsible for leading the team on the rollout of the Paycheck Protection Program, which helped 5.2 million small businesses hurt by the pandemic access $525 billion.

He reports that starting up a brand-new government program in such a short time frame was quite a ride!

Nancy and Lincoln Purdy dealt with COVID by loading up their “kids” in the family truckster and moving their bubble to an Airbnb in Florida for a few weeks this winter, where they visited with Nancy’s parents. They broke up the trip south with a pit stop in Naugatuck, Connecticut, where they had a fun, socially distant visit with Kathy Lawlor Morrissey and her family. The Purdys report that their Florida stay was a muchneeded change of scenery from the New England winter, and they were even able to

1987

assist Nancy’s parents in getting round one of the vaccine.

Michael Doyle, John Tucker, and Oliver Carr got together in fall 2020 in Chatham for a successful offshore tuna-fishing excursion.

The word on the street is that Erick Kuchar recently became a grandfather. Where has all the time gone?

1988

Trinity Fund Goal: $250,000 Class Secretary: Tara Lichtenfels Gans, 1712 Crestview Dr., Potomac, MD 20854-2630; tara.gans.1988@ trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Dean Andrews, Dede DePatie Consoli, Tara Lichtenfels Gans, Bryant McBride, Arthur F. Muldoon Jr. • /groups/Trinity1988 Hello! As I sit at my desk, February snow is on the ground, and there’s more to come here in D.C. over the next several days. Thinking that summertime seems far away. We’ll read this in June, when the sun and warm air have arrived. Always welcomed after a long winter!

And a long winter it has been. The college continues to keep us engaged through the Virtual Long Walk with programmed events featuring profiles and conversations with fellow alums. In this month of February, Bryant McBride will discuss his multiple award-winning documentary, Willie, about Willie O’Ree, the first African American player in the National Hockey League.

The documentary is streaming on NBC’s Peacock and for purchase on Amazon Prime.

Check it out! Congrats again, Bryant! Later in February, Eve Perugini, a psychologist, will speak during the Women’s Leadership Council: Mom’s Night In virtual program to discuss wellness, resilience, and self-care.

Timely topics for sure. Speaking about a form of resilience, three determined guys refused to let an annual tradition slip: Mark Palladino wrote to say that “Galdawg (aka Mark Galley), Bill Carroll, and I continued our 36-year tradition of attending every New York Giants home game versus the Dallas Cowboys since the fall of freshman year. Since COVID prevented fans from actually going to the games, we ‘attended’ the game and tailgated at Galley’s place in Westport. Didn’t skip a beat.

Great day and Giants victory.” Well done, guys. That’s quite a streak.

One tradition that happens here in D.C. every four years is the beginning of a new administration. At the time of this writing, one of our very own, Sarah Despres, has been appointed as counselor to secretary of Department of Health and Human Services nominee Xavier Becerra. Congratulations on your new position, Sarah! Another of our D.C. area classmates, Jennifer Blum, says she’s been very busy with the company she launched, Blum Higher Education Advising, providing higher education consulting

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services to colleges, education technology companies, and others. Jen’s “so tired of the pandemic, but keeping up with Trinity friends has been important and helpful in keeping spirits up!” Agreed! In fact, Liz Goodman, Corinne Coppola, Jen, and I try to meet outdoors occasionally when the weather allows.

Adding to her list of fundraising roles, Diane “Dede” DePatie Consoli recently joined the Westerly Hospital (RI) Foundation board. Dede will be raising awareness and resources for Westerly Hospital, which is now part of Yale New Haven Health. Dede also reports that Vic ’87 works from home for Avenue Capital. Congrats, Dede, we know you will bring so much talent to the board.

In this last year during challenging times, I noticed common themes through conversations and email exchanges with classmates when preparing our Class Notes. We continued to flex and adapt while working in offices, working from home, and homeschooling our kids. We cared for family and friends. In our socially distanced free time, we built backyard ice rinks; binged Netflix; raised much-needed funds to assist our college and other organizations; tackled self-reflection; found new hobbies; delivered meals; and met for coffee, cocktails, and conferences over Zoom. We found creative ways to have get-togethers and getaways.

We assisted our communities in combating COVID and addressing significant societal crises. What’s the takeaway? We’re tremendously engaged—on so many levels. What a great bunch! While it’s too early in February to know whether we’ll gather in person at Homecoming, hopefully we’ll all be able to see one another again soon. Don’t forget to join and participate on the Trinity College Class of 1988 Facebook page. Wishing everyone well over the next few months. Keep me posted with news, updates, and photos for the next edition. Until next time, cheers!

1989

Trinity Fund Goal: $60,000 Class Secretary: Andrew P. Walker, 242 Kent Place Blvd., Summit, NJ 07901-1219; andrew.walker.1989@trincoll. edu • Class Agents: Jason Manske, Bill Monaghan • /groups/trincoll89 Hello, ’89ers! We’ve got more great updates this issue, including a few highlighting the nonprofit efforts of some of our classmates who have been working in that sector for years to make the world a better place.

Please let me know if you’re doing nonprofit work so we can all know about your organization, too.

Mark Eller reports that his work with the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics helps protect resources in parks and natural areas across the United States and around

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the globe. Recently, a large research project conducted with Penn State demonstrated that substantially more people than ever before visited outdoor areas last year, a trend that is expected to continue. The center’s work with the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and the Forest Service, as well as corporations such as REI and Subaru, informs visitors and inspires them to become better stewards of the places we all cherish. More info at LNT.org.

Sophie Wadsworth also has been in the nonprofit sector for years but recently changed organizations. She reports, “I just finished a wild first year serving Camp Starfish in southern New Hampshire (www. campstarfish.org). We provide summer camp and year-round respite programs for children who face significant emotional, social, behavioral, and learning challenges.

A 1:1 staff-to-camper ratio, with all the fun of traditional camp and, for some campers, their first real friend. After having to close down for 2020, we’re counting the days until campers arrive in June! Meanwhile, my husband, Bruce, and I live west of Boston with our lively 10-year-old, Hugh.”

Kate Reavey reports from Washington State’s Peninsula College, where she has taught English for almost 30 years. She recently hosted author, musician, and U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo for a poetry reading and conversation with students.

From a news clipping Kate shared about the event, “Harjo was appointed the 23rd United States Poet Laureate and is the first Native American to hold this position. She is an internationally known award-winning poet, writer, performer, and saxophone player of the Mvskoke (Creek) Nation.” What a fascinating person indeed.

Congratulations, Kate!

Matt Gandal not only wrote but prodded others to send updates, too, for which this secretary is very grateful. He writes, “Glad to have 2020 behind us. Despite the chaos our country has experienced and the suffering of so many, I’m doing well. The family is healthy, my education policy consulting business is thriving, and I’ve been able to stay in touch with a good number of Trinity friends, nearly all of whom are making it through the COVID gauntlet without major setbacks. My wife, Trina Pew Gandal ’88, is teaching virtually as her school is still not in person. Our daughter is a junior in high school, also virtual. One of our sons is a junior at the University of Maryland (virtual), and the other graduated from UMD and is out in the work world. I’ve been able to stay in touch with fellow Class of ’89ers Jeff Jacobson, Jonah Cohen, Stephen Belber, Rich Maloney, Ridge Cromwell, Steve Brauer, and Steve Ryan. Hoping they’ll send updates

as well. In normal years, we get together in N.Y.C. once a year, and we try to build it around a Belber show. That’s his incentive to keep writing and directing plays; otherwise, he’s a slacker. Most importantly, I’m looking forward to sane and stable leadership in the White House. I’m not a big fan of overturning elections, and living in D.C. as I do, I prefer the Capitol to be occupied by elected officials, not rioters. I served in the Education Department in the Obama Administration and will be informally lending a hand as the Biden team ramps up.”

Sean Dougherty writes, “We have been staying with family near Boston since the summer, enjoying having a pod with 10 people in it instead of two for several months before heading back to Las Vegas in mid-January. … We’ve had a few phone calls with Trinity folks, especially Bob Markee, who has successfully kept his mother safe through this ordeal (her shot is scheduled for later this month). I have finished my mission of reading all the books I accumulated but not read prior to retirement. I am looking forward to being told that the problem with our government during the past four years is that the executive wasn’t powerful or intrusive enough. We hope everyone is staying safe and very much look forward to reconnecting post-vaccination.”

Ridge Cromwell says hello from Fairfield, Connecticut, where he has lived for the past 25 years. “Our family is very grateful that COVID has had very limited impact on our life. I am working as CFO for a company in the home medical equipment industry that is backed by private equity and working on an acquisition roll-up strategy. I am happy to network with those in the finance and private equity sectors. My wife, Nina, has her own consulting practice focused on third-party evaluations for nonprofit and government clients that receive grant funding. My oldest daughter, Maya, graduated from Dickinson College in the spring and is preparing for a pending career in social work and getting an M.S.W. Evan is a junior at URI, and Keira is a senior in high school wondering what college will look like in the fall. I recently started working with Jeff Jacobson as his financial adviser and will hold him responsible for not retiring sooner versus later and my quality of life in the future (haha, Jeff is great).”

Matt Cost continues to have success as an author. The first of his three-book Goff Langdon detective series, Mainely Power, was selected as the Maine Humanities Council Read ME fiction book of the year.

Congratulations, Matt!

Please send more news!

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Q+A

Allen Katz ’93 Why did you decide on that focus? These are the classic spirits of America’s historic cocktail culture. During the last 45 years, our national gastronomy has been an ongoing evolution—from the opening of Chez Panisse in 1971 promoting the farm-to-table movement to the rise of wine and then craft beer, the last remaining category was distilled spirits and cocktails. The great revelation is that cocktails, as much as barbecue of the South, are authentic American gastronomy. It is a style and study that has reemerged around the country as we reclaim our taste buds and has been exported around the world during the last 20 years. If you look at the cocktails and cocktail ephemera of the late 19th century (up to Prohibition), they tend to feature rye whiskey and gin. My aim is to put a personal, original touch on these classic spirits and to make them as relevant today as they were in the First Golden Age of Cocktails.

DEGREE: B.A. in music JOB TITLE: Co-founder and master distiller, New York Distilling Company FAVORITE TRINIT Y MEMORY: Singing with the Trinity Pipes. The Pipes had just celebrated their 50th anniversary the year before I arrived at Trinity, and, for me, it created a generational connectivity to the group and the college. To this day, I am in touch not only with classmates I had the privilege to sing with but also with Pipes from long before and after I graduated. It was a chance to grow with a tight group of friends who all loved music and respected one another’s talents.

How did New York Distilling come about?

I always wanted to live in New York and moved downtown two weeks after graduation. I fell in love with hospitality and made a name for myself as an authority on drinks and cocktail history as the city and most of the country entered what’s been called the Second Golden Age of Cocktails in the late ’90s. The distillery, based in Brooklyn, became a natural extension and fueled my interest to start my own business focusing on American rye whiskey and gin.

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What do you enjoy most about your work?

The distillery is a great creative outlet for me. I get to make fun products to my specifications and share them with the public through a distinct and historic cultural lens—cocktails.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your business? It is a calamitous moment for the entire hospitality industry. Prior to COVID-19, our business was largely predicated on nearly three decades’ worth of relationships with bars, restaurants, and hotels. They are closed, many permanently. Fortunately, we are in a reasonable position to retool our sales focus to retail and new direct-toconsumer avenues that have been very promising. When you make (and age) whiskey, you are imbued with a strong sense of patience. It will, I hope, serve me well as we overhaul our business plans to come out stronger on the other side of this challenge.

How did your time at Trinity prepare you for what you do now? The great range of classes and experiences created a path of purposeful difference for me. The

“ I fell in love with hospitality and made a name for myself as an authority on drinks and cocktail history.”

—A L L E N K AT Z ’ 93

nature of my personal Trinity education ingrained me with a desire to suck as much detail as possible out of one topic at a time. These traits serve me every day in my business as well as in how my wife and I raise our two girls, especially through current remote schooling.

What was the most memorable course you took at Trinity? “The Birth of Modernism,” a class I took as part of my music major, was the epitome of a liberal arts education. Its primary focus helped me develop a passion for early 20th-century music. The surrounding influences of history, politics, art, and social science were made relevant to every piece of music we studied and transported me to late 19th-century Russia, early 20th-century Paris, Austria, Switzerland, and Germany. It was a glorious semester.

Was there a professor at Trinity who was particularly influential? Gerald Moshell, professor of music, was particularly influential. A generation later, I remember great details of his classes and Concert Choir and the immense and immediate satisfaction it gave me.

What career (or life) advice would you give to current Trinity students?

1) Follow your passions. 2) Make sure you leave room for art, music, and cultural pursuits. 3) Be confident in asking others for help and advice. 4) Be ready to help others whenever you can.

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1990

Trinity Fund Goal: $50,000 Class Secretary: Laura Bailey Brown, 302 Patterson Ct. NW, Leesburg, VA 20176; laura.brown.1990@trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Mike Cavanaugh, Ron Goodman

REUNION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $175,000 Class Secretary: Heather Watkins Walsh, 9740 Pleasant Gate Ln., Potomac, MD 20854-5494; heather. walsh.1991@trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Brooke Rorer Brown, Robin Halpern Cavanaugh, Brook McWhirter, Jorge Rodriguez, Stephanie Vaughn Rosseau, Ann Newman Selvitelli • /groups/49566326408 Our 30th Reunion year is here! Not sure what that will look like yet in terms of an official Reunion, but hopefully we can all be together at some point this year to celebrate the friendships and bonds we made so long ago! Here’s news from our classmates: Jen Williams-Bulkeley: “We moved back to England in August and are enjoying the English countryside but not our second lockdown in six months. We are living outside of Oxford along the Thames, so our daily walks are at least somewhat idyllic. I have launched another business called ALLY Wines, bringing U.S. wines into the U.K. We spent a few socially distanced moments with the Cavanaughs (Robin and Mike ’90) before we left, and when the world rights itself, we are looking forward to a U.K. rugby tour with all of them.”

Eleanor Traubman: “It’s sunny and cold here in Brooklyn, New York. A few months ago, I had fun standing on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall as part of a group of Brooklynites who received the Brooklyn COVID Heroes award from Borough President Eric Adams. I received it for writing My Local Heroes, a Facebook project that spotlights Brooklynites who are serving their community through activism, the arts, and entrepreneurship. Through chatting with other recipients, I learned that many of them were being honored for mobilizing resources to assist those who are food insecure. The pandemic has exposed the massive inequities in our society, and I look forward to entering a new era where we work together to create a society where every life is treated as valuable.”

Allison Carey: “I published a new book, Allies and Obstacles: Disability Activism and Parents of Children with Disabilities (Temple University Press, 2020), which explores the role played by parents in achieving disability rights. I am a professor of sociology at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania.”

Sue Erickson: “I have completed a certificate program in leadership coaching for organizational well-being through George

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Mason University. I offer leadership coaching on the side, in addition to my full-time job as a university library director. This was an important year to focus on my own well-being and sharing what I’ve learned about well-being with others. 2020 was definitely a year to build resilience and develop habits of self-care for the mind, body, and spirit!”

So great to hear from people and keep our connections strong! Keep in touch, and stay safe! I played so much tennis over the summer once the courts opened up that I got tennis elbow, so I spent most of the winter in PT, and now I am back playing. It is such a nice break from working from home and kids in school at home (eating every meal at home). Hopefully everyone is finding ways to ease the stress! Heather Watkins Walsh, heatherwalsh00@gmail.com

REUNION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $165,000 Class Secretary: Jennifer Murphy Cattier, 1435 Lexington Ave., Apt. 5E, New York, NY 10128-1630; jennifer.cattier.1992@trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Campbell Barrett, Laura Weintraub Beck, Ian Findlay, Ned Rollhaus • /TrinityCollege1992 From the Alumni Office: Hozefa “Havy” Haveliwala (pseudonym Harvey Havel) has published his 18th book, The Odd and The Strange, A Collection of Very Short Fiction.

It is available online and in bookstores. He remembers the fun times he had at Trinity and sends fond regards to his brothers at Psi Upsilon and all the friends and professors he knew while there.

1992

1993

Trinity Fund Goal: $50,000 Class Secretary: James M. Hazelton, 215 N. Plymouth Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004; james.hazelton.1993@trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Ran Barton, Andy Brick, Greg Creamer, Steve Curley, Betsy Yahn Gillon, Jim Hazelton, Jen McArdle Hoppa, Elissa Raether Kovas, Britt Stockton Lee, Matt Peterson, Rachel Schreier Schewe, Kiki Rainey Sizelove, Jon Trevisan, Ashley Turney, Steve Woodworth, Nick Zaino • /groups/522663641408997 Hi, Bantams! I hope this finds you all well.

Scott Toth checks in: “Sending my update from hotel quarantine in Victoria, British Columbia (day 10 of 14). I am up here helping my eldest son return to boarding school after the holiday break. Like many of us over the last year, I turned 50, and so I tend to think back on my life a bit more, including my wonderful years at Trinity. I recently baked a ‘Black Magic Cake’ using the original recipe from Timothy’s Restaurant and remembered how many of those I served to my fellow students and faculty! 2021 marks my living

in California for 25 years and working for all those years at Oracle. So, I feel a bit old but extremely grateful. We have shifted northward and now live in Sonoma, but with all of the wildfire close calls, we are wondering if it’s time to seek greener pastures. Everyone please stay safe and sound!”

Rob Stempien enjoyed a great round of golf with classmate Prescott Stewart at the Concord Country Club, followed by lunch with Nat Kessler on the upper deck.

This update from Steve Skillman puts a huge, warm (but concerned) smile on my face. “The Monahan and Skillman families lost a bet this summer, so they had to dress up as cowboys and cowgirls and stand in front of a green screen that made it look as if they were in Montana. Despite the humiliation, they managed to have a wonderful time together along with their children, who frequently rolled their eyes at them. The beers were icy cold, and a good time was had by all.”

Giddyup, and roll Bants!

1994

Trinity Fund Goal: $175,000 Class Secretary: Sanjeeva “Sanji” Fernando, 183 Atlantic Ave., Cohasset, MA 02025-1434; sanjeeva. fernando.1994@trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Mo McEleney, Suzanne Cahill McNabb, Deb Watts Povinelli, Martha Smalley Sanford, Scott Saperston • /groups/Trinity1994 Matthew Longcore continues to work at Yale University as the member services manager for research databases. He also teaches at the University of Connecticut as an adjunct faculty member for anthropology and archaeology. Matthew is collaborating with fellow alumni to revitalize the Trinity Club of Fairfield County, which he previously led as club president. If you live or work in the Fairfield County region and would like to get involved, please email Matthew at matthew. longcore@yale.edu.

Scott Saperston writes, “As we enter 2021, it feels more like 1991 with Dave Hetherington and I frequently communicating as the Bills push through the first two playoff rounds and face the Chiefs this weekend for the AFC Championship game. As expected, my Psi U friends have used this opportunity to dredge up my misery of four straight Super Bowl losses while we called Trinity home.

The COVID cloud refuses to dissipate, yet life is still good. My son is thriving as a first-year at Boston University, my daughter is starting to navigate the college waters as a junior in high school here in Buffalo, the wife continues to tolerate my lack of maturity, and the text banter with Mark Kastrud, Jay Turner, Brian Dufour, Harry Einbender, Todd Mills, Will Sargisson, John Donohue, Chris Golini, Gary Rafferty, Sam Kennedy ’95, Brad

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hoping conditions this fall will be favorable to attend. Hope everyone is staying safe.”

I share Vinny’s sentiments and hope you’re all staying safe and that we can catch up in person someday soon! Until then, keep sending updates, as we’d love to hear from you!

REUNION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $100,000 Class Secretary: Elizabeth “Bee” Bornheimer, 1132 Bush St., San Diego, CA 92103-2802; elizabeth. bornheimer.1996@trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Anne Chick Goodrich, John Dugan, Hank Foryth, P.J. Louis, Page Fairman Rich Hello, Class of 1996! It is always somewhat of a challenge getting updates for the notes, but this round was particularly sparse. Honestly, I can’t blame you. Normally we would be anticipating an in-person Reunion this year and getting excited about seeing old friends.

Instead, many of us are logging in to our umpteenth Zoom call of the week, worrying about our kids’ homeschooling, and feeling general anxiety about the state of the world.

That said, we do have some incredible creative and professional achievements to celebrate among our classmates this year.

First, Will McCormack’s animated short film exploring the aftermath of a tragedy, If Anything Happens I Love You, is available on Netflix and is a must watch (albeit a heart-wrenching one). Will reports that it is Oscar shortlisted, among the many other accolades it has received so far.

Congratulations, Will, on a remarkable and powerful film. In personal news, Will and wife Emily Arlook had a baby boy named Sonny Martin McCormack on September 19.

[Editor’s note: Will’s animated short film won the Oscar! Congrats!]

Also, congratulations to Jessie Thiele Schroeder, who served as postproduction producer on Pixar’s recent Golden Globenominated release, Soul. She worked closely on the music, sound, and finishing of the film. Luckily, she says, they were done with 90 percent of the film when COVID hit.

In the literary sphere, my dear former roommate Micaela Heekin is the author of a gorgeous and inspiring new book, Icons: 50 Heroines Who Shaped Contemporary Culture.

This is an amazing celebration of women from different disciplines who are shaping our world and makes a fantastic gift for the girls and women in your lives! (A little confused how I didn’t end up featured as an icon. Micaela, let’s talk.)

Finally, from our D.C. correspondent, Jono Lenzner: “Not much to report with the pandemic. I still live in the D.C. area with my wife and two daughters, Sophia, 11, and Grace, 9, who are navigating the pandemic

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An old photo found by Mark Kastrud ’94 shows Jen Fox, Michelle Fernando ’94, TJ Libretto, Melissa Bernene Almeida ’94, Chris Golini ’94, Larissa Mills ’93, Will Sargisson ’94, Todd Mills ’94, Sanji Fernando ’94, Mark Kastrud ’94, and Janet York Kastrud ’94 before a ’70s Night at the fabled Sazerac Grove in Kendall Square in the South End of Boston.

Strahorn ’93, and Josh Newsome ’95, among others, ripens with age.”

Michelle Fernando ran into Tanya Sokol Stevens, a fellow resident here in Cohasset, Massachusetts. All of our kids went to Derby Academy in Hingham, and Tanya and Jeff ’92, like many, are trying to figure out how to rebook spring break vacations put on hold from last year.

A few days after Christmas, I had a chance to hike the Blue Hills Reservation outside of Boston with Graham Schelter. Graham is doing well, with his daughters CeCe and Sophie attending Noble and Greenough School outside of Boston. We had hoped to be joined by Jeff Sanford and Martha Smalley Sanford, but they took advantage of a recent snowfall to ski in the Berkshires.

Carter McNabb and Joe Stein hit Ocean Beach in San Francisco for some surfing this spring. Carter had to borrow Joe’s wetsuit, and some debate how well it fit. Both could agree they hope to have Rob Weber out with them the next time they hit the waves. Carter reports that Suzanne McNabb is more in love with Carter than ever. Suzanne and I also are planning our next trip to the Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival in Franklin, Tennessee, this fall.

Jeff Almeida has been working hard all winter on his mullet; it looks like he can stand in for Barry Melrose, if needed.

Mark Kastrud and Janet have spent most of the winter outside hockey rinks across the Greater Boston area with daughter Maija, a sophomore on the Marshfield High varsity

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hockey team. Mark shared a photo that was taken years ago in the South End of Boston (see above).

Mark also reports running into Tom Corderman outside a hockey rink on the North Shore of Boston. Tom reports he’s had a renewed passion for fundraising for habitat conservation for endangered species. Years ago, Tom visited Brazil’s coast and saw firsthand how key habitats have been destroyed as cities grew. He’s focused his efforts on raising awareness and protecting the habitat of the maned sloth, a three-toed sloth found only in a small strip along the Atlantic Coast of Brazil. Please reach out to Tom if you’d like to learn more and contribute. Tom notes that other two-toed sloth species are not endangered and not the focus of his conservation efforts.

1995

Trinity Fund Goal: $75,000 Class Secretary: Susan Gates Massey, 18 Holden Ln., Madison, New Jersey 07940-2614; susan.massey.1995@ trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Amy Kerrigan Cole, Colleen Smith Hayes, Mary Beth Parker Jordan, Alex Ladd, Ashley Gilmor Myles, Benagh Richardson Newsome, Lisa Koch Rao, Peter Tighe • /groups/trinityclassof95 Greetings, Class of ’95! I had the pleasure of hearing from Vinny Mase, who shared, “I recently relocated back to Connecticut with my family, having the opportunity to join the thoracic surgery group at Yale. Vincent III, 13, Griffin, 11, and Wren, 6, are looking forward to their first Bantam football game and

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with lots of soccer and playing the guitar.

My wife, Matea, is at The Washington Post, where she runs the political investigations unit and oversaw the paper’s voting coverage this past year, so my daughters ate a lot of their dad’s subpar cooking this past fall.

(And I occasionally get to see our classmate Dave Clarke, who is also an editor at The Post, on my wife’s Zoom meetings). I am still at the U.S. Department of Justice and will soon assume the position of acting U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland. Most importantly, I am pleased to announce that my godson Wes Tansill is crushing it in Portland and will soon be able to beat up his dad.”

Thanks to all who sent me news, including those who submitted under duress. Warmest wishes to everyone; stay safe and healthy!

REU NION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $30,000 Class Secretary: Hai-San “Sam” Chang, 15 Daisy Ln., Ellington, CT 06029-3239; haisan.chang.1997@trincoll. edu • Class Agents: Cathy Sharick Clammer, Jim Gilbert, Ashley Hammarth, Melissa Prober, Ben Russo, Sue Church Zibell From me, Sam Chang: We’re changing things up this time. The question is: What are you excited for in 2021? For me, it’s going to be traveling more. I miss visiting new and old destinations. Cabin fever is for real. Also, one of my big goals is beating my sister in tennis this summer. I’ve been practicing all fall and winter. I still need to get better to beat her, but I’m on my way. All the best to you and your family. Stay safe out there!

Jessica Lopes: “What am I excited about for 2021? Getting over to Florence to celebrate the rebirth of our life out of the darkness of a pandemic. And where else to do it but in the city that birthed the Renaissance out of the Middle Ages? Also, to hike a 4K in Maine.”

Courtney Zwirn: “Hi, classmates! In 2021, I’m looking forward to getting vaccinated, traveling with my family, hugging my friends, and starting to plan our 25th Reunion for 2022!”

Stephen Gregg is starting his 17th year as executive director of SquashSmarts, the Philadelphia-based after-school youth education and fitness program that supports children and families. He is excited to celebrate the program’s 20th anniversary and expand its community services into the new $33 million Arlen Specter US Squash Center opening this summer/fall.

Jim Gilbert: “Lots that I’m looking forward to in 2021 (fingers crossed), but I think the biggest is the chance to see friends and family. Really took the annual and semiannual get-togethers for granted, from my brother’s visits in May for my daughter’s

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birthday to our annual road trip to the Boston area during the holidays. This was the first year I didn’t head home (much to my wife’s consternation, I still refer to Canton, Massachusetts, as home) for New Year’s, and it was hard. If I get a second option, I’ll echo you on the travel; going from traveling nearly every week in 2019 to screeching to a halt in 2020 was hard on a lot of levels, including trying to stay connected with my colleagues (who are scattered across the country) and clients. My company’s CEO said it well: ‘I love my house, but not that much.’ Hope you and your family are doing well and staying safe. Still holding many fond memories of Jones 1 in ’93–’94.”

From the Alumni Office: Rhitu Siddharth was named one of 20 Outstanding Women by the INDIA New England News. She was honored during the 18th Annual Woman of the Year Event, held virtually in March. Now based in Tripoli, Libya, Rhitu has provided humanitarian and political leadership as a U.N. official for nearly 18 years.

1998

Trinity Fund Goal: $40,000 Class Secretary: Jessica Lockhart Vincent, 8 Arborlea Ave., Yardley, PA 19067-7406; jessica.vincent.1998@trincoll. edu • Class Agents: Levi Litman, Geoffrey Zampiello It’s another light news cycle for the Class of 1998. In January, Ally Hurder Levy joked that her childhood dream came true when she was mentioned in an article in Teen Vogue.

The article, “Community College Enrollment Plunges during COVID-19 Pandemic,” discusses the challenges community colleges face as a result of the pandemic. Ally is quoted because of her position as co-director of college inquiry programming at College Access: Research & Action (CARA).

And that’s all for this edition of the Reporter. As always, if you have anything you’d like to share with your classmates, you can email me at jessicalvincent@yahoo.com.

Hopefully by fall, life slowly will be getting back to normal, and I’ll have more to report!

Until then, take care, and stay safe.

1999

Trinity Fund Goal: $45,000 Class Secretary: Alyssa Daigle Schoenfeld, 28 Woodvue Rd., Windham, NH 03087-2113; alyssa.daigle.1999@trincoll. edu • Class Agents: Allison Lanzetta, Amie Margolis • /groups/TrinColl1999

2000

Trinity Fund Goal: $35,000 Class Secretary: Virginia W. Lacefield, 3504 Tates Creek Rd., Lexington, KY 40517-2601; virginia.lacefield.2000@ trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Doug Borgerson, Pete Collins, Peter Espy • /Trinity-CollegeClass-of-2000-193274580990

Hi, friends! I’m happy to be able to bring you a jam-packed column this issue thanks to everyone who sent in news and updates about their lives, loves, and occupations. A year ago, Nora Matthews was working her way through Connecticut’s TEAM program for early-career educators, but she’s happy to report that she graduated last summer, “only 17 years after I got my teaching certification!”

Nora is continuing to teach at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts Middle School and fervently hopes that theater eventually will look like theater again.

John Miecznikowski also reached an important career milestone last year when he was promoted to full professor at Fairfield University, where he’s been teaching chemistry since 2007. John’s research program centers on synthetic inorganic chemistry, organometallic chemistry, bioinorganic chemistry, and innovative techniques in chemistry education, and besides teaching his regular classes, he’s also mentored nearly 40 undergraduate and high school students in laboratory-based research projects over the years. In 2020, he was named a Virtual Inorganic Pedagogical Resource Fellow and is participating in “an innovative study to develop, test, and refine a flexible foundation-level inorganic chemistry course.” He also partnered with a colleague from visual and performing arts to design a fun course called “Understanding Color through Chemistry and Painting.”

Steve McFarland recently wrapped up five years in Florida, where he was an assistant professor of geography at the University of Tampa, was active in the Democratic Socialists of America, and dabbled in permaculture gardening. Last summer, he packed his bags and moved “from the Sunshine State to the Golden State to start a new job as associate professor of labor studies at Cal State Dominguez Hills in the L.A./Long Beach area.” He’s looking forward to learning to garden with a whole new set of plants!

A.J. (Ann) O’Connell is excited to announce the publication of her third book, A Perfect Facebook Life, a collection of poems, micro-fiction, and very short plays that all began as Facebook status updates. As someone who has been Facebook friends with A.J. since the beginning, I personally can attest to her having a dragon’s hoard of hilarious material to mine for this book (and probably a sequel or three), and I can’t wait to read (or reread) every chapter! The book is due to be released April 6, 2021, and it’s already begun receiving positive early reviews. A.J. continues to live in North Granby, Connecticut, with her husband, son, dog, chickens, and two cats, one of which refuses to leave her attic.

Jackie Santiago lives in Hartford, where she is the human relations commissioner for

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Q+A

Lucie Leblois ’00 What have you enjoyed most about your work in tech? After graduating from Trinity, I settled in Washington, D.C. My first job was working at washingtonpost.com, establishing the online presence of The Washington Post. These were the good old days, when our job was to get readers online and election results were still tracked by coloring U.S. maps with markers (at the end of election night November 7, 2000, Florida was a purple-brown mess). Google, Facebook, and mobile were not even on the radar.

These were incredible days to work in the dot-com industry, learning and building as we went, gauging what worked and what didn’t, creating a platform that was completely new and would ultimately reinvent so much of our lives.

I quickly developed a passion around journalism, technology, and how people accessed information. This would lay the foundation of years in the sector where I eventually launched my own business, Crumbdrop, a technology platform that generates instant animated slideshows.

I co-founded Crumbdrop in 2012 with my husband and our classmate Christian Allen ’00, my husband’s former roommate at Trinity. We brainstormed around where the internet was heading—and where it hadn’t been yet. Twitter and Instagram at that point were great ways to tell stories, but the question remained around how to tie those stories together to create a deeper context and what would be the business plan behind it. We would spend hours iterating, drawing on my then 2-year-old’s whiteboard, and eventually built and launched an app in the App Store—no easy feat—while learning how to raise money. Those years could have served as my own master’s, navigating the investor and tech worlds as a woman, learning, and, as any entrepreneur would appreciate, pivoting a lot along the way. Crumbdrop landed in the online travel sector, in a partnership with Bébé Voyage, a website and community for traveling parents where we built virtual slideshows, or “trails,” offering a fresh local perspective on a city.

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What is the DC Food Project, and what is your role in it? More recently and as my children have grown, I have found myself going back to some of my roots, peeling layers from an incident I came across at my children’s school: A peer of theirs was hungry, went home hungry, and came back to school hungry, and I thought, “Why?” What can be done to help this student, this second-grader?

What is being done for so many kids in this city who are deemed “food insecure”? It quickly became apparent that more could be done, and I dove in. With two other amazing women by my side, mothers like me, I launched DC Food Project, a nonprofit aimed at reducing food waste in schools while improving weekend access to healthy food for students in D.C. What are the biggest challenges the nonprofit faces because of the pandemic?

When COVID-19 hit, it quickly became clear that it was no longer a matter of scaling our program; it was a matter of addressing the immediate need that took place as schools shut down.

We launched an Emergency Weekend Bag Program, and from the few dozen families we had been feeding, we began to fill hundreds of bags of food, and then thousands. Since March, DC Food Project has delivered more than 700,000 meals to families in need, or to put it in perspective, more than 100,000 pounds of food.

The harsh reality is that pre-COVID, Washington, D.C., had one of the highest rates of food insecurity, with one in five children deemed as food insecure (it’s one in six nationally). It is estimated that food insecurity rates in D.C. almost doubled between February and May 2020, making this city one of the most impacted across the country.

Our greatest worry is seeing the demand growing and the funding dwindling— there is no cavalry on the way. Federal and local agencies are beginning to shut down their operations, leaning on nonprofits such as ours. School administrators, while attempting to focus on

DEGREES: B.A. in law and minority movements (self-designed, interdisciplinary); M.A. in communication, culture, and technology, Georgetown University JOB TITLE: Co-founder, DC Food Project; tech entrepreneur FAVORITE TRINIT Y MEMORY: Well, I met my husband, Ramsey Baghdadi ’00, so that’s a pretty big start!

I met some of my best friends to this day.

That infamous fall of 1996, we all landed in Jones. Our freshman year … can I say that freshman year was my favorite Trinity memory?

how to most safely reopen schools, are perhaps even more concerned about how these families will survive. I always say we have the opportunity to help, so we should.

What were your most memorable academic experiences at Trinity? In looking back at my time at Trinity and having had the opportunity to create my own major, I realize now that so many of the courses I chose as an 18-year-old have come to be some of the greatest foundations toward the work I am doing today.

Trinity also took me to South Africa, as one of the first groups (all three of us!) to attend University of Cape Town.

I volunteered in a township during my time there, mentoring children, in the end learning more from them than they probably did from me.

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the City of Hartford and CEO of COMPASS Youth Collaborative Inc., a nonprofit that focuses on helping high-risk youth succeed in education, employment, and life. Jackie was promoted to CEO in 2019 after having worked for COMPASS in various other roles since 2004. She writes, “I became a CEO despite the fact I never dreamed I could ever become one. After all, I could not aspire to be something I had never seen. I had never met a poor, brown girl who became a CEO. I was lucky; I received the opportunity to attend a private school that provided me with an education that I would never have received in my neighborhood school. Now, I feel a deep sense of responsibility to provide opportunities, hope, and direction to youth growing up in poverty. My experience taught me that any youth can flourish if given exposure to new experiences, positive relationships, and the right opportunities at the right time. My deepest desire is that youth see me and begin to dream about how they, too, can create positive change in the world.”

Another Trinity CEO, Alexander Drexler, has spent the last two years relaunching Alex Mill, the “timeless, not trendy” independent clothing company he founded in 2012. In 2019, he joined forces with former J. Crew/ Madewell designer Somsack Sikhounmuong and expanded Alex Mill’s catalog to include women’s items. More recently, the two partnered with Jimmy Fallon on a limited-edition line of COVID-inspired work-from-home “P’Jimmies” pajamas with pockets, with 100 percent of net proceeds going to the hunger-relief charity Feeding America.

In family news, John Brigham announced that he recently has gotten engaged and is planning a September wedding. I expect to have some pictures of the celebration for you in a future issue! Congratulations also are in order for Johanna Tighe Traven, who has a new member of her family to introduce: “Peter, Margot (age 3), and I welcomed a baby girl, Eloise Charles, on June 13 (2020).

After five years in Eastern Europe, we live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I am on the Reunion Committee and cannot wait to see everyone next June at our 20th Reunion.”

Speaking of Reunion, I’m truly sorry that we won’t get to see one another in person this summer, but I do hope to see many of you virtually instead, including those of you who wouldn’t have been able to travel to Hartford but who can join the festivities remotely. So fire up your webcam, throw on a fun filter or background, and let’s make this our most inclusive Reunion yet!

In closing, I’d like to take a moment to remember Patrick Nolen, who passed away unexpectedly in October 2020. Patrick was a much-loved and highly respected professor of economics at the University of Essex, where

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he taught for more than 14 years. He also was a dear friend to many in our class, including yours truly, and he will be deeply missed.

That’s it for this issue! Send me your news and updates at virgquest@gmail.com, or message me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. If you have ideas for online Reunion activities, please share them with Johanna or any other member of the Reunion Committee: Class President Pete Collins, Doug Borgerson, Peter Espy, Sara Merin, John Miecznikowski, or Jackie Santiago. Until we meet again, stay warm, stay safe, and keep on keeping on!

REUNION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $75,000 Class Secretary: Susanna Kise, 1301 Richmond Ave., Apt. 370, Houston, TX 77006-5494; susanna.kise.2001@trincoll. edu • Class Agents: Jay Civetti, Lizzy Easter, Ann Grasing, David Kieve, Matthew Schiller • /groups/TrinityCollegeClassof2001 Friends, Bantams, Class of ’01, as you use your sanitizer-covered hands to turn the pages of this issue, we already will have met for our Reunion. Whether it will have been in person or virtually remains unknown as of this writing. If it is virtually, then hopefully we shall be able to gather in person the following year. Fingers crossed!

Your secretary drove back to Houston in October from L.A., where I’d been working remotely for a few months. On the circuitous drive back, I got to visit with Carla Boecklin and her husband in Park City. It was great fun catching up and getting a tour of the area.

I am crossing my fingers that I will be able to road trip it to Maine this summer to see family. Until then, it’s tax season.

In 2020, Matt Schiller launched his new law firm, Murphy Schiller & Wilkes LLP (MSW), a full-service commercial real estate firm that consists of 14 attorneys, where he leads the firm’s commercial leasing, distressed assets, and opportunity zone practice groups. Matt is a fellow with the American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL) and is the vice chair of the Real Property Trust and Estate Law Section of the New Jersey Bar Association.

Matt and wife Laura live in Manalapan, New Jersey, with their three kids, Brody, 8, Chloe, 7, and Sydney, 7, and dog Winfield.

Michelle Theodat Waring has news to report! “After 18 wonderful years in N.Y.C., we moved to Portland, Maine. I still work remotely for NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) in New York and actually got it approved before the pandemic (I guess I was psychic). We really wanted to be closer to my family in Boston and have space for our two girls (5 and 2) and our dog. We moved into our house at the end of April and pretty much haven’t left since then. Loving Portland

2001

JOIN THE BANTAM BUSINESS DIRECTORY. www.trincoll.edu/ AlumniAndFamilies/ Connect/Business

and the ease of life, despite COVID, and looking forward to a vaccine and being able to host people in the summer. There really is nothing like Maine in the summer (though as I write, fluffy snow is falling, but I still prefer summer). I was really hoping we’d have our Reunion this year, but it looks like we’ll have to think of a way to crash next year’s Reunion instead. Hoping everyone is staying safe and healthy, and hope to see my Trinity friends soon.”

REUNION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $35,000 Co-Class Secretary: Michelle Rosado Barzallo, 40 Craig Ln., Trumbull, CT 06611-4406; michelle.rosado.2002@trincoll. edu • Co-Class Secretary: Adrian Fadrhonc, 193 Buena Vista Ave., Mill Valley, CA 949411233; adrian.fadrhonc.2002@trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Shakira Ramos Crespo, Nicole Belanger LaBrie, Ellen Zarchin

2002

2003

Trinity Fund Goal: $20,000 Class Secretary: Alexander L. Bratt, 111 Westerly Terr., Hartford, CT 061051118; alexander.bratt.2003@trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Descatur Potier, Suzanne H. Schwartz • /groups/trinitycollege2003

2004

Trinity Fund Goal: $25,000 Class Secretary: Jake Schneider, 59 Wallis Rd., Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3174; jacob.schneider.2004@ trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Matt Glasz, Mimi MacKinnon, Jake Schneider • /groups/485669531523501 The Class of 2004 is surviving and thriving during the pandemic. We are keeping in touch with drinks over Zoom, co-op video games, and sharing bread-baking recipes, all while trying to ignore that our 20th Reunion is only three years away.

Anthony Ribadeneira left WeWork and took a role as head of procurement at 1010data in N.Y.C. He also is working on a contemporary political thriller novel.

Laura Anderson McGrath and husband Mike McGrath reached the next level of

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adulthood in 2020, purchasing their first home in West Hartford, Connecticut, much to the delight (or trepidation) of neighbor David Elwell. They also joyfully welcomed their second child, Lucille Hart, on January 17, 2021. Brother Matthew, 5, is guarding his Legos. The McGraths are contractually obligated to once again acknowledge that none of this would be possible if not for Matthew Gallagher.

2005

Trinity Fund Goal: $20,000 Class Secretary: Diana Dreyfus Leighton, Pennington, NJ; diana. leighton.2005@trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Eileen Flynn, Devin Malay, Andrea Leverant Minor, Liz Hanusovsky Patterson • /groups/ trinitycollegeclassof2005 Since news from you was quiet over the past few months, I asked my friend, former roommate, and English major Jenny Dunn Pray to write a piece about life during the pandemic.

Enjoy!

“Hey, Class of 2005, it’s Jenny Dunn Pray.

Our class secretary, Diana Dreyfus Leighton, asked me to use a little of our notes space to reflect on the impact of the past year.

“Writing this, I remember fondly my days of writing Tripod feature articles, and I can’t help but feel nostalgic. I think about the size of the desktop computer I was typing on—a monitor I couldn’t even wrap my arms around and a whole separate hard-drive tower! I think about the broken thermostat in my Anadama double, and the roll-down blinds I’d pulled too far that would never snap back up. The room was constantly dark and hot, a kind of hellish environment all around, but instead of following through with Buildings and Grounds, my roommate and I wore shorts and tank tops and sweated it out.

“What did I have to worry about back then? If a broken thermostat was my biggest problem, what was there to complain about?

My life, at the time, was centered around reading, writing, and having fun with my friends. Did I have any idea how free I was?

“Class of 2005, 16 years after our graduation, we find that the freedom of movement, the spontaneity that we took for granted back then, has been taken from us. A year into this pandemic, life is hard. If we’re feeling nostalgic, who can blame us?

“Many of us have found ourselves working remotely, often with spouses and children occupying the same space in which we are supposed to be productive. Many of us—moms especially—have tried to face the closure of schools and childcare with outward grace while on the inside wondering desperately how we will ever get anything done again. Many of us have felt our mental and emotional health strained, as our usual outlets have been closed off. Those of us who

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are navigating the dating world at this point in time—as they say here in the South, bless your hearts. Some of you may have battled COVID yourselves or watched loved ones struggle with this terrible virus. Some of you may have lost friends and family members.

“Do you remember, Class of 2005, that day just weeks into our freshman year, when we turned on our TVs to watch the events of September 11, 2001, unfold? Do you remember how we cried together, gathered in dorm rooms and on the quad, and checked on one another, even though many of us were still strangers? There was something so tragically beautiful about the way the events of that day brought us closer.

“Now, we are scattered, isolated. We cannot gather to grieve the ways in which our lives have changed. We have hope that things will soon get better, but this has gone on so much longer than we expected that we just don’t know anymore. When will we reclaim our lives?

“I want to bring you back to a moment when I was a senior at Trinity, a student in late professor Hugh Ogden’s poetry workshop. A friend of mine had died recently, and I was traumatized and barely holding on. When I tried to write about it, I couldn’t handle the gentle criticism I was given. I left class with tears in my eyes, and Hugh followed me out, already taking a cigarette out of his breast pocket. “Jen,” he said to me, and I’ll never forget it. “I’m holding you in the light.” It was his Quaker way of saying, “I’m praying for you,” but to me it felt like I was being offered up to the sunlight, where I could finally be warm and whole. It’s one of my dearest memories of Trinity.

“And so, my classmates, though it’s been years since I’ve seen you and though I never knew some of you at all, I propose that, in the absence of other alternatives, we hold one another in the light. When the world is as dark as it is right now, we could all use the support of someone wishing us well.

Wishing you all hope, happiness, and healing. Jenny”

REUNION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $20,000 Class Secretary: Timothy Y. Fox, 2012 Kalorama Rd. NW, Unit 6, Washington, D.C. 20009-1458; timothy. fox.2006@trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Tory Hamilton McCarthy, Kim Galloway McHale, Virginia Adair McCarthy, Nicole Tsesmelis From the Alumni Office: Attorney Evan J. Seeman was elected a 2021 Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Foundation (CBF) James W. Cooper Fellows Program.

2006

Gray MacDonald Huffard ’08 and husband Tate take to the beach with new addition Boone and big brother Wick.

REUNION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $15,000 Class Secretary: Devon Lawrence, 343 E. 30th St., Apt. 1P, New York, NY 10016-6411; devon.lawrence.2007@ trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Joey Butler, Jenny Carson, Logan Gould, Devon Lawrence, Nile Lundgren, Dave Mason, Jed Rednor, Molly Carty Sparrow, Corbin Woodhull, Jenn Wrobel • /groups/TrinityClassof2007

2007

2008

Trinity Fund Goal: $7,000 Class Secretary: Elizabeth Fritzer Dreier, 32 Elaine Dr., Simsbury, CT 06070-1625; elizabeth.fritzer.2008@trincoll. edu • Class Agents: Nadia Zahran Anderson, Sasha C. Kravetz Josh Schwerin recently launched a communications consulting firm, Saratoga Strategies, specializing in crisis management communication, message development, and political strategy.

Marissa Zanno has been hard at work as a hematology social worker caring for kids at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C. We would like to recognize her efforts in a health care setting, especially amid the pandemic!

Regarding personal updates, congratulations are in order for several alumni who recently welcomed new additions to their families. Andrew Maia and wife Steph welcomed son Owen into the world on July 10, 2020. Gray Huffard and husband Tate

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John Unghire ’09 and Lila Navarrete embrace on Trinity’s Long Walk after he proposed on New Year’s Eve 2020.

Jon ’09 and Madelyn Korengold Terbell ’09 pose with daughter Evelyn Louise “Weezy” Terbell, born on September 18, 2020.

welcomed their second son, Boone (joining big brother Wick), on September 30, 2020.

Finally, Megan Borgelt Hill and husband Chris are celebrating the birth of their second daughter, Annie, born on January 21, 2021.

already is shaping up as a solid candidate for the Class of 2042! They live in Boston; Madelyn is an interior designer at Gauthier Stacy, and Jon recently spun out of his role at the Babson College Endowment to co-found FourBridge Partners.

Ashley Swiggett Sternal and Code Sternal ’08 now have not one but two boys— Hamilton Chester Sternal, born May 14, 2019, and Boden Hunter Sternal, born January 15, 2021. They go by Ham and Bode.

John Unghire proposed to girlfriend Lila Navarrete on the Trinity campus this past New Year’s, and she said yes! They plan to marry in California this summer and will live in Connecticut.

2009

Trinity Fund Goal: $15,000 Class Secretary: Caitlin M. Brisson, 224 W. 16th St., Apt. 3, New York, NY 10011-6190; caitlin.brisson.2009@trincoll. edu • Class Agents: Alison M. Holmes, Piper Klemm, Christian Montoya, Kumud Nepal, Alexandra Klestadt Patack, Terrance W. Sullivan, Alexandra Purdie Wueger Jonathan Asen recently joined Bernstein Shur, a law firm in Maine, and specializes in government relations.

Perrin and Chauncey Kerr Hamilton are still in San Francisco. They welcomed their second child, Perrin Coe Hamilton, in September, and their daughter, Reese, just turned 3. Chauncey is a partner at a new venture fund called XYZ, and Perrin’s leading a strategy and planning team at Uber.

Chauncey’s sister Samantha ’12 lives nearby and works at executive recruiting firm Rich Talent Group.

Carver Diserens is very pleased to report that he’s got a short film called The Little Prince(ss) coming to Disney+ later this year, under the Disney Launchpad program.

Madelyn Korengold Terbell and Jon Terbell welcomed daughter Evelyn Louise “Weezy” Terbell to the world on September 18, 2020.

No pressure on her or admissions, but she

S P R I N G 2021

2010

Trinity Fund Goal: $20,000 Class Secretary: Rebecca M. Herrigel, 29 Sawyer St. #2, Portland, ME 04103-3408; rebecca.herrigel.2010@trincoll. edu • Class Agents: Nathaniel J. Kelly, Ryan Flynn • /groups/777318939001542 Impatiently waiting for the vaccine up here in chilly New England, but I’m very happy to report on the exciting updates and news of our classmates!

Becky Loeb got engaged on New Year’s Eve, and they are planning to get married in April (fingers crossed that they will be able to celebrate in person with their family and friends!).

Matt Sullivan and wife Cecilia welcomed Milo Joseph Sullivan on February 12 (coming in at 7 pounds, 19.5 inches).

Kristen Liska, M.D., has fortunately received the COVID-19 vaccine, but that was after a year of working in the emergency room at Cape Cod Hospital and treating COVID patients throughout the pandemic.

Maggie Thomas recently started her new position as chief of staff, White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy.

Ben Gascoigne is involved with a start-up, Safety Skin, which was accepted recently into the Comcast NBC Universal SportsTech accelerator program.

Congratulations to everyone, and please keep in touch!

REUNION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $15,000 Class Secretary: Remi Dolan, 3 Tamarac Ln., Englewood, CO 80113-4920; remi.evans.2011@trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Rachel L. Meddar, Abigail A. Smitka Some new adventures and new additions to celebrate this season for the Class of 2011.

Join me in congratulating two new Bantam parents. Emily Harmon and husband Sam Grossman ’12 welcomed their first child, Charlotte Penn, on October 30.

This past summer, Andy Janiga got out of the Army, and he and wife Jo-Ann Jee ’10 moved to New Hampshire. Jo-Ann has been teaching chemistry at Trinity for the past few semesters, and Andy recently joined a dental practice in Nashua, New Hampshire.

Please continue to share your stories and moments with us in The Trinity Reporter.

2011

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Q+A

Bryce Blum ’10 What do you do in your roles at ESG Law and Theorycraft? I’m an esports attorney and consultant. On the legal side, my work is a mix between sports/entertainment and general business law. We handle general corporate, employment, and other typical business matters, but we’re also drafting player contracts, trades, and sponsorships and negotiating the formation documents for the inaugural franchised esports leagues.

On the consulting side, my clients are typically mainstream sports, media, and entertainment companies that are looking to translate whatever they do to the esports and gaming space. I’ve advised major brands, sports teams and their ownership groups, investors, media companies, and other businesses on how to successfully enter and navigate the esports ecosystem.

What do you think is behind the popularity of esports? People like watching other people play video games for the same reason people like watching other people play sports: it’s aspirational, entertaining escapism. Juxtapose that against the incredible growth of the gaming industry, which is already generating more than $150 billion worldwide, and it’s not hard to see why esports are becoming more and more popular. With that said, we’re still in the bottom half of the first inning in terms of our growth and development. The most popular esport—League of Legends—is already generating global viewership akin to major traditional sports in the United States; fast forward 30 years, when the majority of the global population will have grown up in a world where video games are ubiquitous, and the most popular sports in the world are going to be soccer and a video game (that likely hasn’t been created yet).

How has the pandemic affected esports?

Like any entertainment-based business, the esports industry took an immediate hit and had to adjust a wide array of plans surrounding major live events throughout 2020. With that said, we’re

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lucky in that the majority of our events easily could move online. While most other forms of entertainment took extended breaks or outright canceled, our show was able to go on. Combine that with the fact that people were stuck at home with limited entertainment options, and it created a perfect storm to expose new audiences to esports and gaming content; many games saw explosive viewership growth as a result.

What do you enjoy most about your work?

The esports industry is still incredibly young, but it’s growing so fast that we’re being forced to build the airplane while it’s in the air. That means we get to innovate, test, learn, and push the bounds on what the competitive landscape for a sport looks like. It’s an incredibly challenging and fun puzzle to wake up every day and try to help solve.

What are the biggest challenges you face?

The esports industry is a little overhyped at the moment. People see images of sold-out stadiums but don’t realize that we’re not selling out big venues for regular-season matches just yet. They see the staggering viewership numbers, but they don’t parse through the data to realize that large percentages of that viewership tend to be in Asia. These expectations have caused some people to get burned, whether it’s a brand that doesn’t see the ROI it expected from its sponsorship or an investor who is surprised revenues aren’t growing as quickly as she thought it would. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a huge believer in the esports industry long-term—I bet my career on it. But we’re shooting ourselves in the foot at times, and that’s making it harder to build the industry in a manner that is sustainable.

What was the most memorable course you took at Trinity? “Bill of Rights” with Professor Ned Cabot. He taught us how to think at a level far beyond anything I’d ever experienced by challenging every position, every assumption; you could actually feel the students’ capabil-

DEGREES: B.A. in public policy and law and political science; J.D., George Washington University JOB TITLE: Founding partner, ESG Law; co-founder, Theorycraft FAVORITE TRINIT Y MEMORY: My senior week. My friend group realized that we’d never really get the chance to all be together like that again, so we made bucket lists and sucked every hour of fun out of each day.

ities evolving week over week. His style sparked so many good debates that the class didn’t even feel like a class.

Was there a professor at Trinity who was particularly influential? Professor Renny Fulco, hands down. I took basically every Fulco class I could in my time at Trinity and learned more from her than I could possibly recount. But her biggest impact on my life wasn’t in the classroom; she spent so much additional time guiding me in thinking through graduate school and my future career path. When I was leaning toward taking on massive amounts of debt to attend a top 5 law school, she encouraged me to consider the flexibility that would come from taking a scholarship and graduating functionally debt free. Without that guidance, I never would’ve been able to take the risk I did to pursue my career in the esports industry. I am eternally grateful.

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REUNION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $15,000 Class Secretary: Mary Kate Morr, 4121 Knox Ct., Denver, CO 80211-1653; mary.morr.2012@trincoll.edu • Class Agents: James J. Armillay Jr., Esq., Charles McConnell, Mary Kate Morr, Nicole Lustig Pasternak, Alberto Roldan, Lily Pepper Sommer, Kathryn T. Van Sickle, William A. Yale • /groups/ trincoll2012 Meredith Veach has been working in Los Angeles as a film producer and editor.

She is proud to announce that her film, Threebound, is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video and to rent or buy on YouTube. Here’s the synopsis: “Newly single New Yorkers Sarah and Matt aren’t looking for love, but they may have found it, ready or not. To avoid the ever-clichéd rebound relationship, they devise a plan: sleep with three other people first, then give their relationship a shot. How many wrongs make everything right?” Make sure to leave a review on Amazon, IMDB, or Facebook; reviews help make it more likely that Meredith’s movie will stay on the streaming platforms.

Rebecca S. Weintraub and husband Evan Preminger welcomed a son, Benjamin Henry Steiner Preminger, at the end of September.

2012

2013

Trinity Fund Goal: $35,000 Class Secretary: Andrew C. Weiss, andrew.weiss.2013@trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Lauren M. Aber, Perin B. Adams, Caroline E. Brewster, Kevin C. Clark, Malcolm X. Evans, Emily H. Gianis, David D. Hill, Jesse L. Hunt, Megan A. Ingersoll, Matthew H. Mainuli, Ryan McGuirl, Christopher D. Novick, Alexander C. Raffol, James C. Thaler, Dobromir G. Trifonov

George Brickley ’10 and Maddy McDonnell were married on New Year’s Eve 2020 in San Francisco. Joining the bride and groom were Hannah Brickley ’14, Cindy Higgins Brickley ’80, George Brickley ’79, and Charlie Brickley.

2014

Trinity Fund Goal: $7,500 Class Secretary: Chloe M. Miller, 1014 H St., Anchorage, AK 995013431; chloe.miller.2014@trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Brendan P. Bader, Carl M. Barreto, William A. Gray, Madeleine V. Hansen, Alexander S. Harvey, Sophie M. Katzman, Juan Diego Lopez Rodriguez, Ann W. Murdock, Nathaniel R. Nurmi, Benjamin B. Plumer, Maxwell L. Schaefer, Victoria C. Trentacoste, Katherine C. Weatherly-White William Morrison and Renée Swetz were married in October 2020 at the Asticou Inn on Mount Desert Island in Northeast Harbor, Maine, with a number of Trinity grads in attendance. Julia McGhee ’13 was a bridesmaid, Connor Proctor was best man, and Nate Maynard was a groomsman.

Annabelle Butash reports her engagement to Ben Greenberg (Reed College, 2009). The two were engaged in San Francisco, where they live, in early January.

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Annabelle Butash ’14 and fiancé Ben Greenberg celebrate their engagement.

Jeremy ’14 and Emily Kleidon Rees ’14 enjoy the holidays with baby boy Declan Ira Rees, born on October 2, 2020.

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William Morrison ’14 and Renée Swetz ’14 were married in October 2020 at the Asticou Inn on Mount Desert Island in Northeast Harbor, Maine. Bantams joining the couple included Melissa Anderson ’14, Mollie Scheerer ’14, Connor Proctor ’14, Paul Swetz ’19, Alec Buffamonte ’17, Benjamin Plumer ’14, Frannie Bower ’13, Maggie Doyle ’14, Julia McGhee ’13, Nate Maynard ’14, and Alex Nakhla ’14.

Jeremy and Emily Kleidon Rees welcomed a baby boy, Declan Ira Rees, on October 2, 2020.

Emily Johnson finished her first semester of business school at MIT, where she worked closely with Graham Skinner ’12. Emily is enjoying being back in Boston and reconnecting with Trinity friends in the area, including Brendan Kelley and Brittany Viola.

She enjoyed surprise birthday celebrations with Chloe Miller and Joanna Wycech Knight this past fall.

Two notes from the Alumni Office: Ali Caless was promoted from associate to counsel, effective January 1, 2021, at top-ranked IP law firm Cantor Colburn. She is an attorney in the firm’s Trademark and Copyright Department.

Ten Minutes to Midnight, directed, produced, and co-written by Erik Bloomquist, hit theaters across the country in September 2020 and VOD/digital on January 19. Starring legendary scream queen Caroline Williams (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2) and Batwoman’s Nicole Kang, critics call TMTM “destination viewing” (Daily Grindhouse), “a nightmarish descent through memory, anxiety, and futility” (JaredMobarak.com), and “as trippy as anything out of the mind of Terry Gilliam or David Lynch” (HorrorBuzz).

Other upcoming features include the romantic dramedy Weekenders (theaters February 12 and VOD/digital May 18), the horror film Night at the Eagle Inn (slated to premiere late summer), and the coming-of-age holiday film Christmas on the Carousel (releasing

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November 2021), all directed by and starring Erik. Erik is the youngest-ever recipient of the Trinity Club of Hartford’s Person of the Year Award and the Paul E. Raether ’68 Alumni Achievement Award.

2015

Trinity Fund Goal: $30,000 Class Secretary: Shaina N. Lo, 10 Parkway Rd., Apt. 6, Brookline, MA 024455405; shaina.lo.2015@trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Fiona Brennan, Margaret D. Ciocca, Cole A. D’Angelo, Taniqua K. Huguley, Zoe J. Huschle, Julia G. Kelling, J. Wilson Laprade, Stephan “Mac” Morse, Peter J. Ragosta Jr., Sam J. Ruddock III, Stephen P. Sample, Marie Christner Stansfield, Sarah S. Wolcott, Robert D. Zindman Adolfo Abreu is a current candidate for the New York City Council race in District 14, the Bronx community. His platform covers just and quality education, community health and wellness, equitable economic development, safe communities, and more.

Taniqua Huguley recently won the U.S. State Department’s 2020 Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund Rapid Response grant. This grant allowed her to launch Black Girls Achieve, an empowerment program designed for Black girls. The program was founded to assist girls with the tools and skills needed to thrive during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond; its core themes are education, advocacy, health and wellness, career readiness, and women’s empowerment. Black Girls Achieve aims to provide participants with the social, emotional, and

political skills needed to navigate everyday life. The program was launched in Queensbridge Houses in New York City.

Catherine Read: “I graduated from Cardozo School of Law in June 2020, passed the New York bar exam, and started work as an assistant district attorney for the Bronx County District Attorney’s Office, Appeals Bureau.”

REUNION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $15,000 Class Secretary: Ashira E. Anderson, 1079 Firetower Rd., Colora, MD 21917-1502; ashira.anderson.2016@ trincoll.edu • Class Agent: Hollis U. Alpert • /groups/Trinity2016 Kelly Vaughan ’17 and Evan Turiano are thrilled to announce that they got engaged in November in Central Park, five years after meeting in Professor Gac’s Civil War seminar.

The two are planning to marry at the Chapel in summer 2022!

2016

REUNION • JUNE 2022 Trinity Fund Goal: $15,000 Class Secretary: Daniel A. Garcia, 2967 N. 79th St., Milwaukee, WI 53222; daniel.garcia.2017@trincoll. edu • Class Agents: Jake Bennett, Nicholas DiBenedetto, Alec Buffamonte, Katelyn Elinoff, Daniel A. Garcia, Andrew Hatch, Kelvin Kaari, Clio Kammerer, Clare Knowlton, Kaitlin Lewis, Julianna Maisano, Ryan Miller, Andrea Nicholson, Kiley Nygren, Sean Orlando • /groups/Trinity2017

2017

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2018

Trinity Fund Goal: $5,000 Class Secretary: Lauren Ollerhead, 1390 Pine St., Apt. 102, San Francisco, CA 94109-4801; lauren. ollerhead.2018@trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Bassil Bacare, Sarah Dolan, Justin Fortier, Michael Fries, Louisa Kammerer, Jamilah Ketcham, Elizabeth Koris, Joseph F. Lord IV, Meghan Marsh, Molly Nichols, Nia Vogel

2019

Trinity Fund Goal: $5,000 Class Secretary: William J. Duggan III, 10 Main St., Cheshire, CT 064102403; william.duggan.2019@trincoll.edu • Class Agents: Rachel Brigham, Sam Buck, Alex Gnassi, Sophia Gourley, Debbie Herrera, Ethan Hunter, Alex Kaplan, Talia La Schiazza, Brooke LePage, Emily McLeod, Molly McGonigle, Kristina Miele, Erik Mohl, Simran Sheth, Amber Stevenson, Stephanie Velarde, Michael Zarra Although the world has changed since we have flown the coop, our class has gone on to amazing paths to achieve their goals.

Tiara Desire-Brisard is in her second year of law school at St. John’s University and has adopted a wonderful Russian dwarf hamster named Shaggy. Talia S. La Schiazza has been working in public affairs as an account manager in Washington, D.C., and is starting at Georgetown this summer for a master’s in public relations and corporate communications. Olivia G. Curreri has been working as a developmental associate of principal and major gifts at Boston Children’s Hospital and began an M.B.A. program at Suffolk University Sawyer Business School in January. Nicole Towner is in her second year of veterinary medicine at Colorado State University. She conducted research on insects on local cattle and horses to determine what vectors were present in the insects and then tracked the viruses throughout the summer and examined how they changed.

The Class of 2019 has not only gone on to do wonderful things since leaving Trinity but also used the pandemic to keep learning how to stay connected. There have been many small reunions between old roommates through Zoom, as well as old teammates staying connected to the coaching staff and cheering on one another. Other classmates have found their passion working in the big cities of Boston, New York City, Los Angeles, and other locations across the globe. Even though the pandemic has kept us from meeting in person, we are able to connect with one another in new ways that we never would have imagined. This has helped us keep our strong Bantam pride.

S P R I N G 2021

2020

Trinity Fund Goal: $2,000 Class Secretary: Vacant • Class Agents: Olivia Hoyda, Anna Kate Luddy, Elizabeth McCauley The class secretary position for the Class of 2020 is vacant. If you would like to serve as class secretary, please contact Julie Cloutier in the Alumni Office at 860-297-2043 or julie. cloutier@trincoll.edu.

IDP

Class Secretary: Shahzad Keith Joseph IDP’19, 87 Fans Rock Road, Hamden, CT 06518; shahzad.joseph@ trincoll.edu Maryam Bitar IDP’16: “I completed my J.D. at the University of Connecticut School of Law and am a 2021 candidate for an LL.M. in human rights and social justice. I’m also the program coordinator for Muslim life on campus at Trinity. I’m also preparing for the Connecticut bar exam.”

Daisuke Katsumata IDP’18: “I was accepted into the Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience Ph.D. program at Michigan State University in the fall of 2019. Since then, I’ve had a chance to co-author a popular press science article, serve as a reviewer for a scientific journal, run a lab group, and conduct my own research into individual differences in how people choke under pressure. I also had the opportunity to speak to students from the high school and community college I graduated from about my research as a grad student and my experiences leading up to grad school.”

Master’s

Class Secretary: William T. Dziura M’16, 9 Conway St., South Deerfield, MA 013731001; william.dziura@trincoll.edu Chris LaRoche M’93 recently celebrated 10 years of working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and 20 years of parttime teaching at Northeastern University in Boston.

Tom Reynolds M’94 earned an Ed.D. from Northeastern University in 2020 and was appointed in 2021 as dean of institutional advancement at Manchester Community College in Connecticut.

Amanda Niedbala Greenwell M’08 earned a Ph.D. in English from the University of Connecticut in 2020 and is assistant professor of English at Central Connecticut State University.

Class Notes Guidelines We want to be sure that all information included in The Trinity Reporter is accurate, so we’re asking for everyone’s help. When sharing Class Notes information with your class secretary or directly with the college, please follow the guidelines below.

• Avoid sharing hearsay, that is, news that one alum might tell you about another alum or news that you’ve learned from social media.

• Keep in mind that health information is sensitive. Avoid sharing health information about others, and only share health information about yourself if you’re OK with it being published.

• Avoid including information about engagements or pregnancies; it’s better to report marriages and births.

• For weddings, please include who, when, and where information.

Remember that we reserve the right to edit submissions for clarity, length, grammar, and appropriateness of content.

For PHOTOS, we accept only HIGHRESOLUTION wedding and Class Notes photos (generally with a file size of at least 1 MB); low-resolution photos, while fine for websites, will not reproduce well in the magazine.

For Class Notes photos, we ask that no more than one photo is submitted per person per issue and that the photo includes at least one Bantam. We can’t promise that we’ll be able to publish all that we receive, but we’ll do our best. We reserve the right to decide what is published based on available space, photo quality, and photo content. We invite you to email photos and complete caption information (WHO, WHAT, WHEN, AND WHERE) to your class secretary or to sonya. adams@trincoll.edu.

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IN MEMORY Editor’s Note: Full obituaries for this issue may be found in our online edition at commons.trincoll.edu/Reporter.

1938, HON. 1975 S. Prestley Blake 1949 Rigaud B. Paine Jr. 1951 Robert H. Wilson Jr. 1951 George H. Wittman 1952 Giraud V. Foster, M.D. 1952 Albert L. Magnoli Sr. 1953 Theodore A. Barnett 1953 Robert A. Barrows 1954 Paul E. Kennedy 1954 David O. Mackay 1954 Thomas E. Marriner 1955 John J. Hodge 1955 Richard E. McCrea 1956 Willis A. Diefendorf 1956 The Rev. John D. Limpitlaw 1956 Alan R. Schaertel 1956 Peter C. Turner 1957 Stephan von Molnar 1958, M.A. 1962 William J. Kilty 1958 James B. Studley 1959 Frederic K. Houston 1959 Richard T. Nolan 1960 Roger A. LeClerc 1960 Philip B. Temple, D.D.S. 1961 William A. Sullivan Jr. 1963 Phillip W. Correll 1963 David M. Post 1963 Donald C. Winfield 1965 Thomas B. Jansen 1967 Joseph G. Brand III 1967, M.A. 1968 Daniel J. Cruson III 1967 Thomas W. McConnell 1970 David T. Hill 1970, M.A. 1972, HON. 2020 Roberta J. Russell 1970 James B. Tully 1971 Lady Victoria Schott de Rothschild 1973 Patricia B. Fargnoli 1975 Peter G. Wiswall 1976 Holly Naka Walden 1976 Zelma Yarber-Woodson 1979 Steven J. Popkin 1983 James B. Frederick 2000 Patrick J. Nolen 2018 Mary B. Cherna

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NEW TCAA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS

MASTER’S

1957 Russell F. Doolittle 1957 Charles H. “Chuck” Perret 1969 Marilyn C. Schwedel 1982 John E. Radacsi

HONORARY DEGREES

1975 S. Prestley Blake ’38 2020 Roberta J. Russell ’70, M’72

FORMER FACULTY

Frederick K. Errington Dirk Adriaan “Dutch” Kuyk Jr.

FORMER STAFF

Jeffrey H. Kaimowitz The Rev. Ann Charles Miller

FORMER TRUSTEES Eudora L. Richardson

DEATH NOTICES

1959 William C. Riley 1962 James P. Fox 1966 H. Charles Vogel Jr. 1976 Bruce W. McKay IDP 1987 Ty Quell-Zemelsky

In Memory Guidelines

Kathryn “Lizey” Korengold Bernstorf ’12

After graduating from Trinity with a B.A. in political science, Lizey Korengold Bernstorf ’12 moved back to Washington, D.C., and earned a master’s in social work from Catholic University while working full time. She works on the executive team of Ourisman Automotive of Virginia while she completes an M.B.A. at American University.

Bernstorf joined the Trinity Club of Washington, D.C., in 2012 and currently serves as club president.

She also serves on the Holton-Arms School Alumnae Board. She and husband Stephan Bernstorf ’10 have one child, Aiden, 1.

We will not announce the death of an alum without first confirming with a previously published obituary or direct notification from a relative.

Also, alumni who passed away more than two years prior to the date of publication will be listed in Death Notices, along with alumni for whom we do not have enough information for a longer obituary.

THE TRINITY REPORTER

C L ASS NOTES

The Trinity Reporter Vol. 51, No. 3 Spring 2021

Editor: Sonya Storch Adams Vice President for Communications and Marketing: Angela Paik Schaeffer Communications Office and Other Contributors: Ellen Buckhorn, Andrew J. Concatelli, Caroline Deveau, Tess Dudek-Rolon, Lizzy Lee, Helder Mira, Kelly Ann Oleksiw M’15, Katelyn Rice, Stacy Sneed, Bonnie Wolters Class Notes Coordinator: Julie Cloutier Designer: Lilly Pereira/www.aldeia.design Student Worker: Emma C. Sternberg ’21 BOARD OF TRUSTEES Officers: Chair: Cornelia Parsons Thornburgh ’80; Vice Chair: Lisa G. Bisaccia ’78; Vice Chair: Michael J. Kluger ’78, P’13; Vice Chair: Kevin J. Maloney ’79 Ex Officio: Joanne Berger-Sweeney, President and Trinity College Professor of Neuroscience; Eric S. Estes ’91, President, Trinity College Alumni Association

Elizabeth McDonald Krebs ’92

Liz Krebs ’92 earned a B.A. in history from Trinity, where she served as president of Tri Delta during her senior year. Since graduation, she has worked in the financial services industry, first with Kemper Financial Services, and later with First Union Securities and Manulife Financial. In 2004, she started her own financial planning practice, Krebs Financial Management, LLC, helping a broad array of clients. Krebs has led the Trinity Club of Chicago and for the past 12 years has served on the board of Scholarship for Illinois Residents, Inc. (SIRI), where she helps select a deserving Illinois student to receive a full-tuition scholarship to Trinity. She and husband Robert Krebs ’93 have two children.

S P R I N G 2021

Terrie S. Rouse-Rosario ’74

Terrie Rouse-Rosario ’74 earned a B.A. in intercultural studies from Trinity. She went on to earn an M.P.S. in Africana studies from Cornell University and an M.A. in African history and a School of International Affairs certificate from Columbia University. RouseRosario, a recently retired arts executive, serves as president of Rouse Consulting. Her most recent position was as a Mayoral Cabinet member acting as the executive director of the DC Commission on Arts and Humanities. RouseRosario’s career also included time as COO for the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, founding CEO for the Capitol Visitor Center at the U.S. Capitol Building, executive director of the Atlanta Ballet, and director of the New York Transit Museum. She and husband Eliseo Rosario Jr., M.D., have two sons.

Charter Trustees: Ross Buchmueller ’87, James W. Cuminale ’75, P’09, William E. Cunningham Jr. ’87, P’19, ’21, Henry D’Auria ’83, Nancy M. Davis ’79, Peter S. Duncan ’81, P’13, ’14, Christine E. Elia ’96, Steven A. Elmendorf ’82, Elizabeth Elting ’87, Eric R. Fossum ’79, H’14, Michael Gary ’86, John S. Gates Jr. ’76, P’13, Walter Harrison ’68, H’18, Jeffrey B. Hawkins ’92, H. Susannah Heschel ’73, H’10, Susannah Smetana Kagan ’91, Ling S. Kwok ’94, Kathleen Foye MacLennan P’17, ’20, Daniel Meyer ’80, P’20, David L. Schnadig ’86, N. Louis Shipley ’85, Kelli Harrington Tomlinson ’94, Rhea Pincus Turteltaub ’82, Kathryn George Tyree ’86, Craig Vought ’82, P’17, Richard W. Wagner ’83, P’18, Jean M. Walshe ’83, Damian W. Wilmot ’97 G. Keith Funston Trustee: Adrian Lo ’12 TRINITY COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Kathryn “Lizey” Korengold Bernstorf ’12, Annette M. Boelhouwer ’85, Thomas D. Casey ’80, Gregory M. Creamer ’93, Amy McGill Dilatush ’94, John J. D’Luhy ’55, John H. Ellwood ’65, P’95, President Eric S. Estes ’91, E. Gates Garrity-Rokous ’86, Daniel J. Good ’95, Patrick R. Greene ’07, Jawanza J. Gross ’94, P’12, Jeannie Guzman ’10, Juan M. Hernandez ’13, M’15, Faculty Representative Gabriel F. Hornung ’07, Taniqua K. Huguley ’15, M’17, Monete G. Johnson ’11, Amanda Johnson Kennedy ’94, Christine Kleinert ’82, Elizabeth McDonald Krebs ’92, Peter H. Kreisel ’61, P’91, Maximillian A.D. Le Merle ’16, Rebecca Wenner Litt ’08, Kaitlin Reedy Malin ’14, Christopher G. Mooney ’75, P’06, Jorge E. Rodriguez ’91, Louisa P. Rodriguez ’81, P’21, Terrie S. Rouse-Rosario ’74, Hamill J. Serrant ’08, Jonathan P. Smith Jr. ’03, Dede Seeber Stone ’81, P’14, ’16, Jamie Tracey Szal ’06, Andrew S. Terhune ’78, Rachel Freeman Zinny ’92 BOARD OF FELLOWS Hugh M.M. Anderson ’93, Wildaliz Bermudez ’04, Samuel H. Booth ’04, Kristen W.Y. Chin ’07, Chart Chirathivat ’96, Crisanne M. Colgan M’74, Christopher R. Delaney ’83, Diane “Dede” DePatie Consoli ’88, P’19, ’22, Elizabeth A. Corbat ’11, Jennifer A. Cuminale ’09, Katherine E. DeConti Duckworth-Schachter ’98, Luis A. Fernandez ’11, Tara Lichtenfels Gans ’88, P’20, Mary Beth Parker Jordan ’95, Isabelle Krusen ’03, Douglas M. Macdonald ’89, Bryant S. McBride ’88, P’20, Rhoden B. Monrose ’09, A. Duffy Mudry ’94, Eric C. Mudry ’94, Benagh Richardson Newsome ’95, P’22, Alisa Coren Norris ’92, Toby Norris ’91, Lisa Koch Rao ’95, Lourdes E. Reynolds ’91, Paul F. Romano ’81, P’12, ’15, Eric Rosow ’86, Jacquelyn Santiago ’00, Edward T. Schiff ’01, Alan G. Schiffman ’81, Peter A. Schwartzman ’88, Bill J. Talbot III ’82, Madelyn Korengold Terbell ’09, John A. Tucker ’87, Susan Granger Tyler ’85, William J. Villari ’86, Charles Wallace II ’92, Bryant S. Zanko ’87, P’17

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ALUMNI EVENTS Life along the Long Walk remains virtual, at least for alumni. We’re eager to welcome you all back to campus as soon as it’s safe to do so, but in the meantime, we’re delighted that thousands of you continue to engage with us virtually through programs on the Virtual Long Walk. The relaunch of the Academy of Lifelong Learning has allowed us to feature star faculty, we’ve created a new Trinity Authors Series, and a series marking the 50th anniversary of the Trinity College Rome Campus has been a tremendous success! Thanks for joining us, and if you haven’t been able to attend, you’ll find most programs archived at bit.ly/VLWArchive.

Please keep suggesting topics and speakers to steve.donovan@trincoll.edu.

[1]

[1 ] N OV E M B E R 19, 2 0 2 0 From Hartford to Hollywood: An Animated Conversation with Kristine Belson ’86 and President Joanne Berger-Sweeney [2 ] , [3 ] D E C E M B E R 16 , 2 0 2 0 Last Year Tonight with Professor Michael Preston, with guests including Amanda Guzman, Ann Plato Fellow in Anthropology and American Studies; Ellie Tate ’21; and Christina Bleyer, director of special collections and archives, Watkinson Library [4 ] F E B R U A RY 16 , 2 0 2 1 Willie: A Conversation with Bryant McBride ’88, P’20; moderated by Chandler Solimine ’19 [5 ] F E B R U A RY 18 , 2 0 2 1 Magicians of the Movie Theater: A Conversation with Cinestudio Co-founders James Hanley ’72, H’20 and Peter McMorris ’73, H’20; moderated by John Michael Mason ’12, M’14 [6 ] F E B R U A RY 2 3 , 2 0 2 1 Tuesdays in Rome: A Visit to the Rome Campus, with Jennifer Summerhays, director of study away; Sophia Kyrou ’21; and Rome Campus faculty and staff members Stephen Marth, on-site director; Francesco Lombardi, student activities coordinator; Francesco Ciccarelli, IT specialist and librarian; Angela Lavecchia, immersion and engagement learning coordinator; Gaia Novelli, head resident assistant; and Elena Fossà, Italian language courses

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[2]

[3]

THE TRINITY REPORTER

[4]

The Bantam Business Directory [5]

is a new online marketplace for alumni-owned small businesses.

Use it to connect with other alumni, list your own small business, or search for Bantam-owned businesses in a variety of industries. bit.ly/TrinSmallBusiness

[6]

scan here

S P R I N G 2021

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ENDNOT E

Trinity College President Joanne Berger-Sweeney

Celebrating two centuries, looking ahead to our third One among many truly uplifting moments for me this semester was the enthusiastic response we received from our community to take part in planning Trinity College’s Bicentennial Celebration. More than 150 people volunteered or nominated someone to play a role in this effort. This outpouring was yet another sign of how proud we all are to be part of the Trinity community.

There is pride in the college’s long history, no doubt: When we mark our bicentennial in 2023, the college will have persisted through domestic and global conflict, the Great Depression, and not one but two global pandemics. And there is pride in the enduring relevance of the college and the importance of a Trinity education in advancing knowledge, cultivating leaders, and serving the public good. There is no better occasion than our bicentennial to celebrate our history, to lift up our values, and to set a course together for our third century.

As we announced in a letter to the community in March, we will kick off the Bicentennial Celebration in September 2022. The festivities will continue throughout the year, including on May 16, 2023, the 200th anniversary of the state’s granting of a charter to Bishop Thomas Church Brownell and a committee charged with the incorporation of a new college.

Our planning will begin in earnest this summer. Philip Khoury ’71, H’21, former vice chair of Trinity’s Board of Trustees and Ford International Professor of History and Associate Provost at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Kelli Harrington Tomlinson ’94, a current Trinity trustee who serves on the boards of numerous educational and cultural organizations and as co-president of the Tomlinson Family Foundation, will lead an overarching Celebration Group that will meet quarterly beginning in June.

The Celebration Group will provide oversight and guidance to a Bicentennial Steering Committee, chaired by Director of Major College Events Kate McGlew, and a number of to-be-determined subcommittees devoted to specific themes or initiatives. All groups will include volunteers from every part of the Trinity community. Please join me in thanking all who have raised their hands to help in this grand effort, and especially Philip and Kelli for their leadership.

Commemorating a milestone such as this affords us the opportunity not only to celebrate but also to reflect on our history in all its complexities. We will be a more enlightened

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institution if we take this opportunity to provide a fuller telling of Trinity’s founding and its evolution. To that end, the Primus Project, launched in 2020 and named for Hartford native and educational pioneer Rebecca Primus, is reviewing historical research with a grant from The Henry Luce Foundation’s Directors’ Discretionary Grants Program made at my request.

The group’s work will add to our historical knowledge and inform our Bicentennial Celebration and the broader narrative of the college.

Thorough, rigorous research is critical, and as an academic institution, we value it deeply. As I also reported in March, we erred last year in moving too swiftly to a decision to rename Seabury Hall based on work that later was found to be incorrect. I regret this error and have apologized to members of Bishop Seabury’s family. The grant-funded Primus Project research is one step in our commitment to a full and accurate telling of Trinity’s history and an honest consideration of our past on the occasion of our bicentennial.

Another step is the restarting of a committee established by the Board of Trustees in 2013 under President Jimmy Jones to assist in the naming of spaces on our campus. The Committee on Named Facilities and Commemoratives, which until now was created but not ever charged with specific responsibilities, will begin its work in July 2021 and will help the college develop a consistent, deliberate process for naming (or renaming) spaces at Trinity.

To be clear, this is not an effort to erase or change history. This committee’s most important charge will be to create clear and specific objectives and criteria for naming buildings and spaces.

Those whom we choose to honor with named spaces should exemplify Trinity ideals and signal to ourselves and to the wider world who we are and what we value. We are not alone in grappling with such questions, of course. Many institutions—public and private—are examining their histories, aiming to honor what is noble and good while acknowledging past wrongs and paying tribute to those whose stories were previously unknown.

This is critically important work of the academy.

As we look toward our bicentennial at Trinity, we recognize that all histories are complicated, and, just as we do in our work as educators every day, we seek truth, understanding, and, ultimately, enlightenment.

THE TRINITY REPORTER

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