The Trinity Reporter SPRING 2018 Trinity scientists and students address crumbling concrete foundations HELPING CONNECTICUT HOMEOWNERS CONTENTS FEATURES 14 Helping Connecticut homeowners Trinity scientists and students address crumbling concrete foundations 18 Changing lives With Eight Million Stories, Marvin Pierre ’06 guides previously incarcerated youth 22 After the storms Campus community lends support to Puerto Rico 28 Focus on indigenous studies What the arrival of Hilary Wyss means for Trinity 32 Concussions Tackling head injuries from several angles 36 The critical role of financial aid Affordability, access, and the enduring strength of the college ON THE COVER A cracking basement wall of a home in Willington, Connecticut, provides a glimpse of the crumbling concrete foundation problem plaguing up to 33,000 homes in northeastern Connecticut. Trinity College’s Environmental Science Program has developed more affordable and definitive tests to benefit homeowners whose foundations may be at risk. PHOTO: MONICA JORGE DEPARTMENTS 03 ALONG THE WALK 07 AROUND HARTFORD 11 TRINITY TREASURE 41 CLASS NOTES 72 IN MEMORY 78 ALUMNI EVENTS 80 ENDNOTE THE TRINITY REPORTER Vol. 48, No. 3, Spring 2018 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 Adams, Office of Communications, Trinity College, 300 Summit Street, Hartford, CT 06106, [email protected], or 860-297-2143. www.trincoll.edu ON THIS PAGE Professor Gerald Moshell, fifth from right, takes the stage in the Austin Arts Center’s Goodwin Theater during a farewell concert held in September 2017 that marked the start of his 41st and final academic year at the college. Moshell welcomed scores of former students at the event, which featured alumni soloists including keyboardist Christopher Houlihan ’09, John Rose Organist-and- Directorship Distinguished Chair of Chapel Music; soprano Liesl Odenweller ’88; mezzo-soprano Meg Kiley Smith ’09; tenor Patrick Greene ’07; and baritone Michael Ersevim ’91. For more photos from the concert, please visit commons.trincoll.edu/Reporter. For more on Moshell and other faculty members who are retiring this year, please see pages 9 and 71. PHOTO: JOHN ATASHIAN / Fall 2014 / 3 LETTERS 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 [email protected] or Sonya Adams, Office of Communications, Trinity College, 300 Summit Street, Hartford, CT 06106. OPPORTUNITIES of people featured in the articles IN NEUROSCIENCE are superb and evoke an emotional I have been reading through Trinity’s response from the viewer that is espe- promotion of its connection with cially touching and so human. [The Hartford Hospital and the exposure issue contains] the best graphics and that students will have, especially layout I have seen in years. Thank you in the neurosciences [fall 2017]. I am so much for this beautiful work. impressed by that development. As a William N. Tedesco M’69 psychologist and one who late in life Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts developed peripheral neuropathy, I know that the needs for knowledgeable specialists are great. The new design of The Reporter is first- Thanks for the coverage. rate—like it was a few years back—con- Lawrence Metzger, Ph.D., ’55 temporary and smart. Perhaps I am to show her as focused, determined, and Santa Rosa, California oversensitive to this since I designed strong, the empowering role model for so many publications when I was in female student-athletes that she is. As the advertising/design business in Coach Hitchcock says in the story, “It’s COMIC BOOK New York, but the better schools have not just about putting wins on the board. KAPOW! smarter magazines. I think it is a reflec- It’s also about helping student-athletes It was fun to read the Reporter article tion of the college and possibly an find their place in the world.” about the comic books donated to the influencer of alumni giving and rela- Watkinson Library [winter 2018]. In my tions. Is it a small thing? Maybe not. day at Trinity, I think comics in a col- Bruce N. Macdonald ’56 lege library would have been frowned Lexington, Virginia THANK YOU! upon. Happy to see this medium come Alumni responded in huge num- into the mainstream … and into the bers and with great thoughtful- realm of acceptance at schools like my For your cover picture of Coach ness to the survey distributed by alma mater. Hitchcock, why so glum? She has the college in January. The survey If the collection includes Wonder the greatest job in the world—she is had an overall response rate of Woman #1 or #2 from 1987, I would be coaching at Trinity! In an issue which more than 14 percent (more than happy to sign them for the library. As includes a Sandy Hook mother, we 2,500 responses)—an incredibly you know from previous communica- have alumni/ae dealing with serious high response rate, well beyond tions, I authored those books. issues. We should try to show joy the expectations of Resonance Greg Potter ’76 where joy is due. Insights, the college’s partner in Exeter, Rhode Island Robert S. Herbst ’80 conducting the research. As this Larchmont, New York issue went to press, the informa- tion was being analyzed; we look THOUGHTS ON NEW DESIGN forward to sharing the results of Your new issue arrived [winter 2018]. TTR responds: Thank you for your per- this important survey in a This is the best, most magnificent issue spective on the cover photo of Trinity future issue of The Reporter. I have ever had the joy and privilege to Head Softball Coach Caitlin Hitchcock. have seen! Some of the photographs While you see her as glum, we wanted 2 THE TRINITY REPORTER ALONG THE WALK News from the Trinity community Sweet 17 Men’s squash tops Harvard to capture national title The Bantams captured their 17th College Squash Association (CSA) National Men’s Team Championship (Potter Trophy) on February 25, sweeping the first wave of matches on their way to a 6–3 victory over the visiting Harvard University Crimson at the Kellner Squash Center. Trinity, which won the Potter Trophy from 1999 to 2011 and in 2013, 2015, and 2017, downed No. 8-seeded Princeton 8–1 and then edged No. 4-seeded St. Lawrence 5–4 to reach the finals. Harvard, seeded No. 3 in the eight-team field, finished its year at 13–3. Top- seeded Trinity closed with a 20–0 record and will enter next season amid a 29-match winning streak. “This was a dream season in that every- thing that you wanted to have happen for the boys did happen,” said Trinity Head Coach Paul Assaiante. “Things don’t always happen the way we want them to. But this year everything did. Playing this at home is a huge advantage. Instead of all the extra noise getting in our way, it pushed us over the finish line.” ↗ For more on men’s squash and the rest of the winter season, please visit commons.trincoll. edu/Reporter or www. BantamSports.com. Florence S. Muriel Harrison Memorial Scholar James Evans ’18 PHOTO: MICHAEL T. BELLO T. MICHAEL PHOTO: ALONG THE WALK Standing with students, leading with love Karla Spurlock-Evans to retire BY ABE LOOMIS Dean of Multicultural Affairs Karla understanding.” Most of all, Huguley Spurlock-Evans has been determined to says, “I think she’s been so effective bring progressive change to college cam- because students see her on campus puses ever since she was an undergrad- and in attendance at their events. She uate at Barnard, occupying Columbia makes it her business to go out and talk University’s Hamilton Hall during the to students and be involved in campus student demonstrations of 1968. discussions.” And she has never lost that ideal- For Spurlock-Evans, whose career ism. In an essay that she contributed also has included administrative roles to a recent book about those years, she related to inclusion at Haverford College wrote, “I gained a belief in the power of and Northwestern University, one of listening to others, of compromise, and the most challenging and rewarding of politics infused with love.” aspects of her work has been serving Those principles have shaped a long, as a kind of intermediary, balancing “ I’m inspired by successful career—and her work at student demands with administrative Trinity since her appointment as dean of imperatives. working with multicultural affairs in 1999 through her “It has been my job to both stand with retirement this spring. students and help institutions translate students and “I’m inspired by working with stu- student demands into action,” she says. dents and watching them respond to the “And I have had to translate to students watching them challenges before them,” says Spurlock- that the college does care about them, Evans, who also serves as senior diver- despite actions that often have to be respond to the sity officer. “Watching how they both taken for reasons that they are not able shape the environment and are shaped to see or understand.” challenges by it and how they prepare themselves Setting the tone for critical conversa- to be of service and to be fulfilled.” tions has been one of Spurlock-Evans’s before them.” For generations of Bantams, Spurlock- gifts to her colleagues as well.