Benjamin Gilbert McLeskey was born near Dresden, Tennessee, July 24, 1834. He was made a ruling elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church around the age of eighteen. After a brief time of studying law, he joined the Obion Presbytery on September 21, 1861, and was ordained in March of 1863. Soon after his ordination he entered the Confederate Army, and served as Chaplain until the close of the war. He married Ella L. Rogers in Brownsville, Tenn. on June 27, 1866. McLeskey received a Doctor of Divinity in 1879 from Bethel College. In 1881 he and his family moved to Sherman, Texas and was the pastor of the Cumberland Presbyterians in that town. In July of 1883 he was elected president of Trinity University and assumed the position that September. While president he was also pastor of the Tehuacana Congregation and a lecturer to theological students. He passed away in October of 1885 after a brief illness.
Information provided in this biographical note came from the Cumberland Presbyterian Church website. http://www.cumberland.org/hfcpc/minister/McLeskBG.htm
Ursula Hall Lauderdale was born in Moberly, Missouri on July 29, 1872. She moved to Texas at a young age with her family, first residing in Gainesville and then Fort Worth. She moved to New York City and attended the Art Students League of New York and the Metropolitan Arts Studio. Her instructors included Michel Jacobs, William Devol, Robert Henri, Maurice Braun, and Frank Reaugh. She returned to North Texas and married attorney and Dallas county judge Edward Seay Lauderdale (1861-1930) around 1899. They lived in the Munger Place neighborhood of Old East Dallas and Highland Park. She was an art instructor at the Bush Temple of Fine Arts, a music conservatory, throughout the 1920s. During this time, she was most celebrated for the creation of a stained-glass window titled "Ruth" in the City Temple Presbyterian Church. Lauderdale was also involved in the Southwestern Chautauqua movement in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Lauderdale joined the faculty of Trinity University (then located in Waxahachie) as an art instructor for one year in 1928. She and Edward Lauderdale divorced in 1929, following her divorce she was briefly married to P.H. Rahl. They moved to San Antonio in 1930, and she set up a kiln and studio in the Menger Hotel, focusing on tile painting and oils. Lauderdale was part of the WPA Index of American Design Federal Arts Project, contributing several watercolor depictions of early American folk art. She was part of the first decade of studio artists in reimagined La Villita, setting up shop in 1946. In her La Villita studio she taught classes in portrait and china painting. She was a member of the Texas and National League of Pen Women and several art leagues. She passed away at the age of 95 in 1968. Lauderdale is considered to be an Texas impressionist painter, focusing on landscape and still-life, but is also identified as a “practical” folk artist working with wood, china, glass.
Monroe Green Everett was born on July 4, 1885 in McKenzie, Tennessee to John Edward Everett and Elizabeth C. Matheny. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Bethel College in McKenzie before receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree from Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington. He attended McCormick Theological Seminary and conducted graduate work at the University of Chicago, Oregon State College, and the University of Pennsylvania. In 1932, he received his Doctor of Divinity degree at Cumberland University.
Dr. Everett was ordained to the ministry of the Presbyterian Church in 1915. His first pastorate was in Camas, Washington. He then became director of the Westminster Foundation of the Presbyterian Church for Oregon, where he was in charge of student work at Oregon State College. Everett moved to Philadelphia and, for twelve years, served as director of the Westminster Foundation at the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel Institute, and Temple University.
Dr. Everett assumed the presidency of Trinity University on July 1, 1942. Under his leadership, the student body grew in number from 453 in 1942 to 3,181 in 1949, the faculty increased from 26 to 157, and the annual operating budget was expanded from $132,000 to $832,000. Everett sponsored a decision of the university to shift from a new campus plan of colonial design to one of functional design employing the revolutionary new Youtz-Slick Lift Slab method of construction. Dr. Everett became President Emeritus on August 15, 1950.
Monroe Everett died on June 4, 1964 in Clackamas, Oregon. He was survived by his wife, Margaret Myrtle Johnson, and three children: Marjorie Jean, John Rutherford, and Margaret Elizabeth. In 1964, the university created a formal resolution to honor President Everett’s devotion to Trinity.
William Arthur ("Bill") Bristow was born on February 1, 1937, in San Antonio, Texas to Edgar Allen and Sue Agnes (Wood) Bristow. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at Austin in 1958 before receiving a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Florida in 1960. He married his wife, embroidery artist Wilanna Bristow, in 1958. Shortly thereafter, they had their first and only daughter, Elizabeth Ann Bristow.
Bristow came to Trinity as an Assistant Professor of Art in 1960. He swiftly rose the ranks, becoming Department Chairman by 1965. Bristow appears to have retired from Trinity in 1999, over 30 years after he came to the University.
During his time at Trinity, Bristow continued to create art of his own. His works were showcased across San Antonio; one of his sculptures was even featured in the 1968 Hemisfair. Bristow is an honorary lifetime member of the Coppini Academy and San Antonio Watercolor Group.
As of 2021, Bristow still resides in San Antonio. More of his papers, in addition to those of his wife, Wilanna, can be found in the Archives of American Art in Washington, D.C.
The office of Campus and Community Involvement name was changed to Student Involvement in 2015.
Dr. Richard Butler, Professor Emeritus of Economics, taught at Trinity University for 34 years. During his first year Butler was assigned chairmanship of the General Education Committee during the process of developing and adopting a new common curriculum. He served on the University Common Curriculum Committee from 1982-2001. He also served as chair of the Economics Department for 12 years, was Acting Director of Urban Studies for a time, chair of Business Administration for three years, and as the founding Interim Dean of the School of Business. He retired from teaching in 2016 and as of 2020 is the University’s Alumni Engagement Coordinator.