Courtesy of Trinity University Website

Many people knew and loved Coleen Grissom — former author, English professor and Vice President of Student Affairs. Grissom passed in January, and Trinity held a Celebration of Life Service in Margarite B. Parker Chapel today on Friday, Feb. 23, at 2 p.m.
Grissom was born on Jan. 9, 1934, and was a part of the faculty at Trinity for over 60 years. Because she retired in 2019, most current students may not have met her. However, according to those who knew her, her impact continues to permeate through the campus’ culture. Melissa (Harman) Zeman, class of 2007, took a few of Grissom’s classes during her time at Trinity and loved the moments she spent with Grissom.
“I only had a couple classes with her, but that was enough to experience her magical way of teaching, connecting and inspiring,” Zeman wrote in an email. “I’ll always remember the way she gave you permission to be your true self simply by championing authenticity and celebrating everyone’s differences. She was a walking safe space for weirdness.”
Kristan Doerfler Siegel, class of 2001, was introduced to Grissom at Trinity in Focus (TIF) during her senior year of high school. Although she did not take one of Grissom’s English classes, Grissom made a lasting impact on Siegel.
“During lunch in Mabee, a woman asked if she could join us (and we said yes). Dr. Grissom introduced herself as Coleen and chatted with us while we ate,” Siegel wrote. “As lunch concluded, she gave me her business card and said she hoped to see me on campus next year. I had no idea she was the Vice President of Student Affairs until I read the title on her business card. Later that week, I received a hand-written letter from her and an invitation to call her directly if I had any questions about Trinity. I knew that if an administrator took the time to get to know me, this must be an incredible school! I gasped when I saw the news of her death; it’s hard to imagine the world without her.”
When Willis Salomon, associate English professor, first came to Trinity as a new assistant professor, Grissom was the only woman in the English department. He believed she was a welcome and supportive presence in the English department and on campus.
“Coleen’s memorable personality — her quick wit, her satiric view of the world, her deep kindness, her erudition and her eloquence — made her a legendary teacher,” Salomon wrote. “She navigated with great skill and deftness her career through Student Life to a university Vice-Presidency during a time when women were underrepresented in higher education administration. Coleen’s legacy at Trinity is of a strong, talented woman, a legendary teacher, a towering ambassador of the university and one of nearly everyone’s favorite people.”
Victoria Aarons, O.R. and Eva Mitchell Distinguished Professor of Literature, was a coworker and a friend of Grissom’s for many years.
“When I first came to Trinity as a new assistant professor, Grissom (then Dean of Students) was the only woman in the English Dept., and even though she only taught an occasional course, she was a welcome and supportive presence,” Aarons wrote. “Her classes, which were very popular and always over-subscribed, were discussion-centered; she expected students to come to class having done the reading carefully and thoughtfully and prepared to talk. She was the first woman administrator (vice president for student affairs). She loved reading new fiction but pretty much read anything she could get her hands on. Some of her favorite writers were Margaret Atwood, Toni Morrison, Susan Sontag and Joan Didion.”
Grissom was well-known for her quotations. One of her quotes stood out so much to Zeman that she had it framed in her home and it now almost acts as a tribute to Grissom:
“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things, they push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

Additional Memories:

Jessica Abel – alumni
“Dr. Grissom’s impact on my life and the lives of so many others cannot be overstated. She offered a combination of love, stern teacherly gravitas and wit in a way I’ll never forget and hope to emulate with my own students of English. She also introduced me to the practice of creating personal rituals in daily life — small gestures of enjoyment or appreciation that enrich the human experience. In so many ways, she has set an example I’ll be following for the rest of my life.”

Peter Balbert – English professor
“Dr. Grissom was a talented faculty member during my sixteen years as Chair of the English Department. Her teaching style was captivating in every way — energetic, well-informed, and filled with that exuberant human touch and comic timing that remain hard to duplicate in the classroom. Her love of contemporary literature was genuine, patient and humane in all respects. She was truly very special.”

Kristan Doerfler Siegel – alumni
“I first heard Dr. Grissom say this when I was a high school senior visiting Trinity for TIF (and she repeated it on several occasions). ‘Figure out what you care about and live a life that shows it.’ This quote originally came from John Hoyt, and it always encouraged me to have a purpose and to follow it.”

Kristan Doerfler Siegel – alumni
“Dr. Grissom was quirky and didn’t conform to what everyone expected an administrator to be. When Dr. Grissom moved to her administrator home on Oakmont, legend has it that the university president (I think it was Dr. Calgaard at the time) told her that there was a certain expectation of her as an administrator living on Oakmont Ct. Apparently, Dr. Calgaard told her that she couldn’t have plastic pink flamingos on her lawn (I’m not sure why he would think she would do this …). So, Dr. Grissom began to collect pink flamingos inside her home. In one of the bathrooms in her house on Oakmont, she had dozens of pink flamingo Beanie Babies. To this day, I think of her when I see pink flamingo Beanie Babies.”