Fall 2021
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 Adams, Office of Communications, Trinity College, 300 Summit Street, Hartford, CT 06106.
‘At the helm’
Julie Mason ’93 serves as chief of staff to country’s first second gentleman
Aiming to increase diversity of voices
Students help spark faculty hiring initiative
Plans with a purpose
‘Architectural Design’ students ‘rebuild’ storm-ravaged Bahamian town
What brings you joy?
Reporter readers respond
Connecting with Puerto Rican culture
Students engage with local community, history, and more
Trinity’s ‘unfailing champion’
Cornie Thornburgh ’80, retiring as board chair, plans to stay connected to college
Download a pdf of the complete Fall 2021 Obituaries.
Read a tribute to Patrick J. O’Connell ’75, H’99
Every Action done in Company, ought to be with Some Sign of Respect, to those that are Present.
— Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, an investment executive turned novelist, describes a clever, brash heroine who is introduced to upper-class 1930s New York society through an unusual and somewhat unfortunate set of events. The story follows the heroine as she defines her own values and observes the strict rules of civility to which others adhere. These rules, and the title of the novel, were based on the Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation, a book containing 110 principles that originated from a set of guidelines authored by French Jesuits in the late 16th century. The guidelines were popularized when our country’s first president, George Washington, a teenager at the time, handwrote a copy of them. It is said that Washington’s actions helped him internalize the ideas, albeit imperfectly, in turn molding his character. While it should be said that Washington didn’t practice all of what he learned, I was struck by rule number one—the excerpt at the top of this letter—and its relevance for our Trinity community today.
