Keep open the path for students
Robert Coykendall ’59 can still picture the path he and his pals took when they wanted to throw a ball on a Trinity field. “There was an opening under the fence where we could sneak through,” he says of growing up in the neighborhood in the 1940s. Later, as he prepared to graduate from high school, he knew education was the way to a better life and discovered another path to Trinity— scholarships. Without the Fox Scholarship and Seabury Scholarship, he would not have been able to attend. That’s why he established the Linley R. and Helen P. Coykendall Scholarship Fund in honor of his parents. Income from the fund is used to provide aid to students, with a preference for students from Manchester and East Hartford, where Coykendall now lives.
Renzo Hidalgo ’14, the current Coykendall Scholar, wrote recently to thank him for his support. Hidalgo described his three engineering classes, his leadership role with the Trinity College Without Borders Club, working at the library, and serving as a teaching assistant. “I finish assignments during the weekends so I can use my free time during the week talking to my professors, correcting my homework, taking book notes, and picking up more hours at my job at the library. I have good momentum so far and will try my hardest to keep it going,” Hidalgo wrote.
“I’m proud that he has my name attached to him,” says Coykendall, a 1999 recipient of Trinity’s Alumni Medal of Excellence. “It’s important to keep that path open for kids to attend Trinity.” Coykendall retired in 1987 from an accomplished engineering career at United Technologies, which included development of fuel cell technology that contributed to the success of Apollo space missions. He is a longtime class agent and member of both the Long Walk Societies and the Elms Society.
$1.25-million Career Services challenges for alumni and parents
If we achieve 52 percent alumni giving participation by June 30, Trinity will receive $1 million for Career Services. And if we achieve 45 percent parent participation by June 30, the College will receive $250,000 for Career Services. Achieving these all-or-nothing challenges will:
- Increase student and alumni job-search support
- Provide more networking events
- Increase mentoring opportunities
For more information and a list of challengers, please visit www.trincoll.edu/givingtotrinity.
