Cover Story / Called to Serve

COVER STORY

Called to Serve

Tim Trainor Joins The Mount

by Steve Fink

Tim Trainor, Ph.D., doesn’t need to command attention when he enters a room. That’s because the 55-year-old retired Army brigadier general earns it immediately through his kind and welcoming spirit. It might just be his enthusiasm and eagerness – after all, it is midAugust, days from the back to school bustle, and the campus is beginning to hum as it awakens from its summer slumber. Trainor’s energy is infectious, no question a celebration of his newest ranking: Interim president of Mount St. Mary’s University. really took good care of the orphans there, but they didn’t have plumbing and things like that,” he said. So the troops got to work on fixing up the place. Typically, the soldiers took Sundays off to go to church and rest at night, but Trainor remembers his team heading right back to the orphanage after services. “I said, ‘Hey guys, what are you doing?’ And they said, ‘We’re finishing what we’re doing during the week. We promised,” he recalls. “It showed me the strength of service and the commitment of good people.”

He jokes he might just order a student or two to drop and give him 30 for fun, but Trainor said his first order of business is meeting as many students as he can this year. During the same deployment, he says the troops eventually moved into an area where they wouldn’t have a Catholic priest available for services.

“I’m really looking forward to getting involved in the campus activities and getting involved in the sports, the classes, just getting to see what the students do. That’s what I’m looking forward to the most,” he said. To get a sense of why he applied for the job, he points to a deployment back in the late 1980s. Trainor was sent on a humanitarian mission to Honduras, and though the operation as a whole was very meaningful to him, one job in particular at a dilapidated orphanage stands out. “We had about 1,000 soldiers in the task force, and we could maybe get a priest once a month to come to the area,” said Trainor, who was raised in a strong Catholic family and attended a Catholic high school in New Jersey. The unit chaplain, a Baptist minister, arranged for Trainor to carry a ciborium of consecrated hosts, giving him the ability to lead communion services for Catholic soldiers on Sundays.

“The orphanage was run by an American woman who was just awesome. She was a proud older woman who The honor didn’t come without its challenges. The chaplain told Trainor he had to keep the ciborium

secure at all times, not the easiest of tasks for a unit that traveled – by parachute. “We jumped by parachute out of perfectly good airplanes, it was part of what we did. Well, we dropped into a big field in San Lorenzo and I had to keep the ciborium with me. So I put it in my cargo pocket on my right thigh, so when I landed I had to make sure I landed on my left side,” he demonstrated with a laugh. Still, the honor made for an indelible and impactful moment in his life. “That was a very foundational time in my development of my own Catholic identity, being able to provide that and do those Communion services for soldiers.” Little did he know that those profound moments in Honduras may have laid the groundwork for his future serving the students and alumni of Mount St. Mary’s. A 33-year-veteran of the Army, he spent the last 15 years working at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the past six as dean. A serendipitous run-in with Jim Nicholson, former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See and husband to Board of Trustees Member Suzanne Nicholson, landed him a phone call with Chair of the Board Mary Kane – and ultimately an interview. “I just fell in love with the place,” Trainor said of his initial visit to the campus. He took the trip alongside his wife of 32 years, Donna Brazil, Ph.D., who graduated from West Point with him in 1983. The couple has three children – a son and daughter who both serve in the Army, and another son who is currently attending the Military Academy. Kane says after that campus visit, there was a clear consensus among the board of trustees that Trainor was the right choice. “What I was very impressed with was his ability to listen and to ask the right questions,” she said. “I think he demonstrates the perfect combination of leadership and service to others. His ability to look forward and to be positive and open to new ideas is exactly what Mount St. Mary’s needs.” Trainor, who has a master’s degree from Duke University’s School of Business, along with a doctorate in industrial engineering from North Carolina State University, plans to take his time in his transition. More than anything, he expects to use his first months at the helm to “engage and learn” from students, faculty, and alumni. “I think it would be kind of ludicrous of me to walk in here and say I know what’s got to be done. The people who know what’s got to be done are the people who have been living and serving here, and I need to learn from them,” he said. As for already established plans such as the Mount 2.0 initiatives, Trainor expects to make learning them one of his highest priorities.

TEAM TRAINOR / (L–R) Meeting with Msgr. Andrew Baker, S.T.D., rector, and Gregory D. Kramp, S’20, to learn more about the Mount’s Catholic history / ”Team Trainor” celebrates son Danny’s graduation from West Point / Trainor congratulates award winners during Convocation / Strolling through Peace Plaza with wife, Donna / Hiking the Anthony’s Nose trail in Bear Mountain, Ny. with dog, Blitzer / Greeting parents during Move In Day 2016 / Sporting Mount gear on a 12-day trip to Ireland with wife, Donna, in August 2016

“The other priority I’ll have up front is to ensure that we are doing what we need to do to accomplish the institutional mission, helping students develop and ensuring that we have the culture where everybody feels they are treated with dignity and respect and they feel they are a valued and trusted member of the team,” he said. There should be little concern as to whether he can accomplish that. Military Academy Superintendent Lieutenant General Robert Caslen Jr. says Trainor’s legacy includes a “phenomenal” revision of the school’s curriculum along with a culture of respect. “I’ve never seen a dean that had so much respect from the faculty and the staff as much as Tim Trainor had,” said Caslen. “He’s got the background, from a systems engineering standpoint, to understand issues and problems and develop solutions, and to be able to optimize resources to make it happen. He is a very effective leader in knowing people and in relating to people. Even though he was my subordinate, I admire him to the highest level.” Shedding the decorated uniform and fatigues may make him look more approachable, but Trainor hopes students won’t let the stereotype of his military background stop them from saying hello. “I’m sure there are some people who are worried about, ‘Oh boy, an Army general.’ You know Hollywood doesn’t necessarily do us a lot of good sometimes,” he laughed. “They shouldn’t worry. It’s not about me talking to them, it’s more about listening to what they say and acting on it.”