Trinity College - Trinilogue Yearbook (Washington, DC)

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leged to know him still feel the force of his wisdom and sanctity. I-Iis great service began on November seventh of the opening year when he offered Holy Mass for the first community of Sisters, and it con- tinued without interruption until his death in 1936. As professor of sociology and as chaplain of the students, he came into intimate contact with every girl and seems to have had the rare gift of making each one feel that his interest in her was a personal thing. There was no phase of student life or activity in which he was not whole- heartedly interested. I-Iis message to the TRINILOGUE on the occasion of the publication of the twenty-fifth volume of the book tells us something of his personality-the dry humor, the sympathy, the understanding, the high ideals that endeared him to the students. The TR1N1LoGUE, he writes, forces attention back to the years that are gone and to the changes that have invaded all life whatsoever. Some changes are trifling and some are significant. When the TRIN- ILOGUE was started, the word date was chronological. It is now sociological. When the first students came here in 19oo, it was believed that malaria arose from newly ploughed grounds. Sister julia drenched the place with holy water as a protection. Dr. Creagh and I escaped malaria and contracted typhoid fever! When the College was started it met much opposition. Its purposes and plans were misunderstood. Dpportunities for a career for women were not numerous outside of the convent, marriage, or teaching .... Life has changed all that. The graduates of Trinity College follow scores of careers as they take their places in life. Their personal ideals will feel the strain to which life will subject them. Throughout all such experiences I believe that memory and heart will hold them faithful to the College. This is the challenge that the founders of the College hold out to us as we take our places in life -that we remain faithful through the years to the high standards that have been set for us, that we keep the Trinity ideal not only in memory and heart, but ever in our daily living. 91'

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draw up plans for the buildings., I-Ier only anxiety was lack of funds. But when a cause is worthy, supporters can always be found. The strongest support of the College in these early days was the Auxiliary Board of Regents to which, after Sister julia, Trinity owes its existence. With such names on its register as Miss Mollie Sewell of Virginia, Mrs. Maurice Francis Egan of Washington, Mrs. R. P. Bland of Missouri, Miss Ella Lorraine Dorsey of Maryland, Mrs. Thomas Carter of Montana, Miss Elizabeth Sherman of Ohio, the success that was attained might have been expected. These ladies traveled from city to city in those early days, interviewing Bishops, writing notices for the press, raising funds, and contriving in hun- dreds of ingenious ways to make the new college known. Ground for the first building was finally broken on june 2 1, 1899, and as Sister julia turned the first shovelful of earth, Dr. Garrigan blessed the sod. On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the same year the cornerstone of Trinity College was laid. By fall of the next year the building was ready for the Community, and on the fifth of October the Sisters entered their new home. Sister Marie Stephanie alone of that original band of pioneers remains with us to tell the story of the turbulence of those first days. There were seventy- five workmen still in the building when the Sisters came-carpenters, painters, stone-masons-giving the last touches to the new structure. The noise they made was sanctifyingf' said Sister julia in one of her letters describing those' early scenes. Cn the third of November the first students arrived. Present students from South America, China, and I-Iolland might be amused to know that six students from six different states in the country registered that morning. By No- vember sixth the enrollment had increased to nineteen. The day following, the Mass of the Holy Ghost was offered by Dr. Garrigan, and at ten o'clock on the same day the opening assembly was held. The first class of Trinity College was an actuality. Of all the founders it is the devoted Dr. Kerby whose influence has been strongest through the years. Even we who were not privi- -I8

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