Washington College Magazine
In Memoriam: Charles H. Trout
Charles H. Trout, Photo: Peter Howard
Former College President Charles H. Trout, who early recognized that historic Chestertown and the surrounding Chesapeake Bay watershed posed tremendous opportunities for students as "a learning laboratory," died September 27, 2006, of complications from leukemia. He was 70.
The Chesapeake regional studies program he initiated during his tenure (1990-1995) was a forerunner of the College's environmental studies major and the Center for the Environment and Society. He also envisioned something akin to the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, an idea brought to fruition a decade later.
Dr. Trout had been president of Harcum College in Bryn Mawr, PA, since May 2002. Officials there credit him with revitalizing the two-year college, nearly doubling enrollments and building robust programs in nursing, radiologic technology, sports management and criminal justice, as well as increasing fundraising by 75 percent and enhancing facilities with new labs, classrooms and a dental clinic. He also resurrected Harcum's intercollegiate athletic program.
After leaving the College, Chuck and his wife, Katherine, maintained a Chestertown residence from which he could measure the institution's progress. His legacy at Washington College includes a more diversified student body, a sabbatical program for junior faculty, and programs in behavioral neuroscience and gender studies. A sports enthusiast, Chuck was responsible for a number of initiatives that enhanced the intercollegiate athletic experience for undergraduates, especially women. Under his leadership, the College joined the Centennial Conference as a charter member. He also launched the Washington College Academy for Lifelong Learning.
He and Katherine spent a year in Kenya through the Teachers for Africa program. In their time abroad, Katherine built the first freestanding primary school library in the Western Highlands, and Chuck oversaw the largest school fundraiser in the history of West Kenya, raising enough to bring running water and electricity into the boarding school, build a new academic wing with two large classrooms and a library, construct a new cookhouse and erect the school's first permanent dormitory.
Educated at Amherst College and Columbia University, Chuck began his teaching career at The Hill School and The Phillips Exeter Academy. He joined the faculty of Mount Holyoke College in 1969, where he became chairman of the history department. While at Mount Holyoke, he was named a National Endowment for the Humanities Senior Fellow and a Charles Warren Fellow at Harvard University. He moved to Colgate University in 1981, where he served as provost for a decade before assuming the presidency of Washington College.
A social historian, he was the author of Boston, The Great Depression, and the New Deal, as well as dozens of articles, papers and reviews. He was working on a book about his experiences in Africa at the time of his death.
In addition to his wife, Katherine Taylor Trout, Chuck is survived by two sons, Benjamin and Nicholas; a stepdaughter, Katy Griffiths; and five grandchildren.
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