The Gerontology Studies Program was a graduate program offered at Trinity University from the fall of 1978 through the spring of 1986. Originally the Center for Research and Training in Gerontology, it was created out of a set of courses on aging, which were formerly a part of the master’s program in sociology. With the approval of the program in 1977, Trinity became a charter and founding member of the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education. In 1980, the program separated from the sociology department as a stand-alone degree program and began offering a certificate program for non-degree seekers. Students of the program could focus on one of four specialized tracks according to their goals after graduation; social services, public policy and planning, long-term health care, or preparation for further graduate work. The program was directed by Charles B. White. Along with 20 other graduate programs, the Gerontology Studies Program was dropped from Trinity’s offerings in the mid-1980s due to restructuring and focus of the university.
Mary Catherine Bradley was born November 21, 1836 in Paducah, Kentucky, the daughter of Reverend Collins Johnson Bradley, a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, and Judith "Julia" McDonald Totten Bradley. Her mother died when she was a young child, and her father remarried. The family lived for some time in Tennessee. By 1858 the family had moved to Paris, Texas, where she worked as a music teacher. Better known as Kate, she married the Reverend William Paxton Gillespie, a widower and professor at Trinity University, in July 1869, and moved to Tehuacana. Rev. Gillespie had four children from his first wife: Mickia, Jimmie, Connie, and Carrie. Kate had two daughters: Minnie Gillespie (1872-1874) and Pearl Gillespie Adamson (1875-1948). Kate taught instrumental music at Trinity University from 1869 through 1874. Kate died in Waxahachie, Texas, in 1922.
Henry Joseph Graham was born September 7, 1913 in Boerne, Texas. His parents were Joseph H. Graham, a lawyer, and Elizabeth Orynski Graham, a prominent preservationist in San Antonio. Henry had one sister, Wanda Graham, who married architect O'Neil Ford. Graham married Carolyn Hoon (1914-1976) in 1938; they had two children, William Henry (1942-1960) and Carolee Graham.
In 1936 Henry and Carolyn Graham purchased and renovated the Weyrich Building, the oldest extent commercial building in Boerne, before selling it to Elizabeth Graham in 1944. Henry worked as an editor for the Time-Life Corporation. In the 1960s, Henry was a central figure alongside his sister Wanda Ford in the opposition movement against the construction of the 281 freeway in San Antonio. As part of these efforts, he formed the Save Our City Organization.
Henry Graham died on September 21, 1997.