HARTFORD, Conn., November 12, 2007 – The Trinity Club of Hartford will honor Walter Harrison, president of the University of Hartford and 1968 Trinity graduate, as its Person of the Year on Wednesday, November 14. A reception will take place at 6 p.m. in the Faculty Lounge, with dinner and the award presentation at 7 p.m. in Hamlin Hall on Trinity's campus.

Harrison, who is the 6th president of the University of Hartford and has served in that post since 1998, will be joined by Trinity College President James F. Jones, Jr., and other Trinity alumni who live in Greater Hartford.

Harrison has long been active in the Greater Hartford community, lending his energy, ideas, passion and vision to improving the life of Connecticut’s capital city and the institution that he heads. He is on the boards of directors of the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges and the Hartford Consortium of Higher Education. He is also a trustee or director of many Hartford-area organizations, among them the Hartford Stage Company, the Greater Hartford Arts Council, Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center, The Hartford Symphony Orchestra, The Connecticut Science Center, and Suffield Academy.

On a national level, Harrison chairs the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Committee on Academic Performance and serves on a number of NCAA committees. He is the immediate past chair of the NCAA Executive Committee.

Upon graduating from Trinity as an English major, Harrison earned an M.A. from the University of Michigan in 1969 and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Davis in 1980. From 1969 to 1972, he served as a captain in the United States Air Force.

Before arriving at the University of Hartford, Harrison served as vice president for university relations and secretary of the university at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.  Since assuming the presidency of the University of Hartford, the school has added three new buildings, new athletic fields, and overseen the building of two public magnet schools.

In 1998, at Harrison’s 30th Reunion, he was awarded an Alumni Medal of Honor. On Wednesday, the Trinity Club will honor him as at its 2007 Person of the Year.