A Message from President James F. Jones, Jr.
There has never been a doubt in my mind that we will achieve the dreams associated with the Cornerstone Campaign, but a recent occurrence on campus further convinced me of it.
During the summer of ’07, a great discovery was made. Lo and behold, what did the construction workers refurbishing the Long Walk find but the cornerstone of the original Brownell Hall from Trinity’s first campus in downtown Hartford. That hall, named for Trinity’s founder, the Bishop Thomas Brownell, had been razed in 1877 to make way for the current Connecticut State Capitol. Somehow, the cornerstone from that building was transported, no doubt with Herculean effort, up the hill to the summit where Trinity’s new campus would be erected. Eventually, it was stored in the basement of Seabury, where it lay, forgotten. It was rediscovered, 130 years later, just as we were preparing to launch our Cornerstone Campaign.
Now, that cornerstone is on display under the Downes Memorial archway,
through which each new crop of Trinity students will pass before they stand, transfixed, by the sight of the Long Walk, the Chapel, and the Quadrangle –
a vision of everything they imagined a college should be. At matriculation, they will sign a register that has been touched and passed on by generations before them. As they hurtle through the next four years in fast-forward, they will slow down, now and again, to hear whispers from the past as they re-create age-old traditions or sing “’Neath the Elms.” In the blink of an eye, they will find themselves at Commencement, profoundly transformed.
As these alumni go about their lives, many of their most inspiring memories of Trinity will come back to them burnished by historic patina. I know mine do –beginning with my inauguration as president in a ceremony so much like those of the 19th and 20th centuries that preceded it. With great reverence, I was presented with an ornate key symbolizing Trinity’s precious resources and the expectation that I would shepherd them wisely. This campaign is the way that I will try to live up to that expectation. And, to me, the reappearance of the Brownell cornerstone, on the eve of this historic Cornerstone Campaign, is a sign that the good bishop would approve.