But eight months after the holidays, in August 2006, a letter from France arrived at Butcher’s West Hartford home. In it, Minard explained his delay: “Thank you very much for continuing to send me your Christmas letter every year. It reminds me of how fortunate I was to attend a fine college like Trinity, with its beautiful campus and dedicated faculty. … And I learn that we share anappreciation for organ music! ... In the second quarter of 2004, my speech suddenly became slow and slurred. ... I was rapidly diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), better known in the U.S. as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. ... this illness ultimately affects the control of all voluntary muscles. … So I decided the sensible thing to do was to go on sick leave and move in with my parents, who thankfully accepted! … Thanks to my parents, I lead a quiet but very pleasant life: all play and no work! Please forgive me for not writing last Christmas.”

A concert by a student, in honor of a student

Minard first encountered Professor Butcher when, as a Trinity sophomore, he enrolled in her junior/senior “Probability” and “Mathematical Statistics” classes. He soon decided to major in both economics and mathematics, and—despite his demanding double major— elected a wide variety of liberal arts courses, both at Trinity and during his junior year at Williams College. At Trinity, Minard’s prowess went beyond his academic interests; he also enjoyed tennis, and until just a few years ago, continued to dominate on the courts. After graduation, Minard stayed in Hartford, launching a career in business at Arthur Andersen. However, he transferred to the company’s Paris office after his only sibling, a brother, died of a heart attack at age 23. Most recently, Minard was the financial controller at Dassault Systemes, a software firm in Paris, until he was placed on permanent sick leave a few years ago.

Soon after he left Dassault, Minard informed friends in the United States about his illness. When Butcher received the news, she immediately suggested a letter from Trinity President James F. Jones, Jr., expressing the College’s concern. So moved by the story was Jones, a French scholar and fellow pipe organ enthusiast, that he began a frequent correspondence with Minard. And, on a visit to Paris last autumn, the president decided to take a three-hour train ride to visit the Minards at their Auxerre apartment.

When Jones arrived in person, Minard was, as he says, at play: listening to his favorite organ music and books on tape, while communicating with friends and family by using his eyes—his only voluntary muscles yet functioning, though his mind remained sharp and inquisitive. In order to communicate, Minard would blink at letters on a computer screen, eventually stringing together elegant, simple sentences in perfect English or French. Soon thereafter, Jones and Marie-Claude, Minard’s mother and caretaker, began planning an ALS benefit recital, where the organist was to be Houlihan, who is spending his junior year at Trinity’s Paris Global Learning Site and as assistant musician at the American Cathedral of Paris. “This concert will mark one of the most significant moments of my presidency at Trinity,” wrote Jones in a letter to Minard preceding the event, “a concert by a student, in honor of a student, with Professor Butcher, ... representing us, along with John Rose, our wonderful Organist and Master of Choristers here in the Chapel.”