HARTFORD, Conn. – Trinity College Professor Emeritus Albert Gastmann, who died in 2007 at the age of 87, left a bequest that will exceed $2.5 million to Trinity, where he taught political science for 36 years.

Gastmann’s dedication to Trinity and its students will live on because he directed that the majority of his estate would go to the College to: 1) enhance resources for the Political Science Department such as visiting lecturers, field trips and library purchases, 2) fund the Gastmann Initiative in International Organizations and Programs, which will support Trinity’s Rome campus programs, and 3) establish a Trinity scholarship fund that will give preference to students from the Netherlands or the Netherland Antilles.

“This is a remarkable gift, for which we are very grateful,” said President James F. Jones, Jr. “Professor Gastmann’s contributions as a teacher, author, and in furthering cross-cultural understanding are legendary at Trinity. To bequeath so much of his estate for the benefit of Trinity students and faculty is a breathtaking act of love and generosity.”

Gastmann was born in Arnhem, Netherlands, in 1919 and spent his childhood living where his father, a Dutch ambassador, was posted, including Indonesia, Iran, Canada, Germany (from where the family was permitted to leave following the outbreak of World War II), and the United States. His father served as Dutch consul general in New York City in the 1940s.

Gastmann joined the Netherlands Armed Services during World War II, surviving a U-boat attack off the coast of Africa and then serving at the Netherlands Embassy in Chungking, China. After his tour of duty, he returned to New York for medical care and to complete his college education at Columbia College, receiving his B.A. in 1949. He then taught school in Lima, Peru, and returned to Columbia for his M.A. in international relations, which he was awarded in 1953. He started his teaching career at Trinity at that time, initially as an instructor of modern languages. Gastmann was fluent in Dutch, German, French, Spanish, and English.

He obtained his Ph.D. from Columbia in 1963, and became a full professor of political science at Trinity in 1975. Gastmann also spent four years teaching in Curacao in the 1970s and a number of semesters teaching European and Third-World politics at Trinity’s Rome campus.

He focused much of his scholarly work on international relations and the politics and history of the Caribbean. He was the author of many articles and books, including The Politics of Surinam and The Netherlands Antilles, Historical Dictionary of the French and Netherlands Antilles, and A History of Credit and Power in the Western World, which he wrote with one of his former students, Scott MacDonald, a 1978 graduate of Trinity. After his retirement in 1990, the Gastmann Book Prize was established in his honor and is awarded each year to a Trinity student who has excelled in international studies.

Gastmann’s Political Science Department colleague and close friend, Professor Brigitte “Gitte” Schulz, said, “This bequest will allow us to take our students to the UN in New York and even on trips to visit Geneva, Brussels, Paris and Rome. It will allow us to bring political science students from the Netherlands and the Dutch Caribbean to Hartford and also enable a faculty exchange program. Bert wanted to make sure that the Political Science Department would offer ample opportunities for students to explore the wider world. He wanted American students to hear professors with different accents, to travel abroad to experience other cultures, to study with students from other lands. In a word, he was interested in turning Trinity students into citizens of the world.”
 

 

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