Dusk fell, and I knew I had to leave to get the train back to Paris. I asked Christian what message he wanted me to take back to Professor Butcher, to which he replied, “Je lui souhaite une World Series palpitante,” which comes across in English something like “I wish for her a heart-stopping World Series,” for he could still recall that Professor Butcher is now, and always has been, enamored of baseball. “What message do you want me to take back to the present students on campus?” I asked Christian in French. I thought I could catch a glimpse of his trying his best to smile, and the letters were moved by his eyes on the computer screen, “Jamais ne le prenez au hasard,” which comes close in English to “Never take the College for granted.”

All the way back to Paris, I pondered the gift this remarkably brave young man, Trinity Class of 1984, had given me that October afternoon. And I wondered what we might do for him in modest recompense.

Christian spent his days listening to classical music, and his greatest love was the organ repertoire. He knew just about everything about the great pieces for the organ. It struck me that we should mount a concert in his honor, to be played by Christopher Houlihan, Class of 2009—who, along with Metropolitan Opera star Christine Brewer when she began her career several decades ago—is the most talented young musician I have ever known. Christopher was then studying at our Paris Global Learning Site, and while living in Paris this past academic year, had been appointed the Associate Organist at the American Cathedral. So this March, Christopher played a recital at Christian’s church in Auxerre, to a completely full audience, at which he presented Christian’s most beloved of all the pieces from the repertoire: Vierne’s Second. I think I shall never hear that piece again without thinking of Christian Minard and Christopher Houlihan, joined both by Trinity and by their love of music. And we dispatched a van with several large men, who took Christian in his special wheelchair, together with his mother, to the concert in his honor. Representing the College on that most special of evenings was fittingly his great mentor, Marjorie Butcher, accompanied by Master of Choristers and Chapel Organist John Rose. Christian’s mother told me in April that it was one of the happiest moments of his life, and I will treasure forever the e-mail message I received from him after the concert, thanking the College for what it had given him over the course of his all too short life.

Christian Minard died, after four years of battling this most terrible of diseases, with his mother at his side, on the morning of April 18, 2008. He was 44 years old.

And his final message to us all will remain with me always: “Never take the College for granted.” May he rest in peace, loyal Trinity son that he was indeed.

James F. Jones, Jr.
President and Trinity College
Professor in the Humanities