Tom Calabrese ’63, P’05

Volunteer Spotlight

In the 60-plus years since his graduation, Tom Calabrese ’63, P’05 hasn’t stopped giving back to his alma mater. “Trinity has played such an important role in my life. I want to do what I can to support the College and our class,” he says.

He has helped plan Reunions and Homecomings and served on the committee to fund the Trinity College Chapel renovation. When the secretary of his class needed to step down, Calabrese didn’t hesitate to take on the position. One of his favorite volunteer roles was calling classmates and asking them to give to Trinity’s Annual Fund. “It gave me an opportunity to catch up with my friends,” he says.

Last June, as chair of his class’s 60th Reunion Committee, he spearheaded an eventful weekend for his classmates that included a nostalgic golf-cart tour of the campus and dinner with more than a dozen Class of ’63 scholars who shared about their graduate studies and careers.

In recognition of the hard work he put into planning the Reunion, Calabrese and his wife, Linda, were honored with a standing ovation and a bouquet of roses before Saturday’s dinner.

“Being a team player is part of Tom’s DNA,” says friend Michael Schulenberg ’63. The two were members of Alpha Chi Rho and played varsity football together. “He is the first one in and the last out on any task or challenge.”

Growing up 30 minutes from campus in Avon, Connecticut, Calabrese idolized Trinity athletes including Bill Goralski ’52 and Ray Aramini ’56. “I watched them play and came to love Trinity for its great football and other sports, beautiful campus, and outstanding reputation in higher education.”

A talented athlete—“I could run fast”—he was thrilled when he was recruited by Trinity for the football team. “It was a dream come true for me,” says Calabrese, who also played on the Bantam baseball team.

Though he majored in engineering, he took enough education classes during his senior year to qualify as a high school teacher. It was his hope to continue his connection to sports as a coach. But after two years of coaching football and teaching high school math and physics in Hartford and Avon, he went back to Trinity for a fifth year in engineering. There he discovered data processing, and his professional life took off.

“Trinity had just gotten its first computer. I was fascinated by this machine, where you could put in some data, the lights blinked, and out popped an answer.” Encouraged by his mentor, August “Gus” Sapega [Karl W. Hallden Professor of Engineering, Emeritus], Calabrese pursued a career in the field, working at IBM, Travelers Insurance, and Pricewaterhouse Coopers. He retired as a senior systems analyst from Baystate Health in 2013.

With his professional background, Calabrese maintains a database of his classmates’ contact information. He frequently sends messages to his cohorts, urging them to attend important Class of 1963 events, such as their monthly catch-up via Zoom. His work pays off. Over the years, his class has received five Reunion attendance awards, including for their 60th.

A dedicated family man, Calabrese is the father of six, including Jamie Calabrese Bratt ’05, and the stepfather of three. He and Linda have 21 grandchildren between them, as well as one on the way.

“I thoroughly enjoyed my years at Trin,” he says. “I learned a lot, academically and otherwise, made many lifelong friends, and very much enjoyed playing the sports I loved so much.”

—Mary Howard

ILLUSTRATION: KATHRYN RATHKE