Paul S. Trible, Jr.

Infobox Senator | name=Paul S. Trible, Jr.


jr/sr=United States Senator
state=Virginia
party=Republican
term=January 3, 1983 – January 3, 1989
preceded=Harry F. Byrd, Jr.
succeeded=Charles S. Robb
state3=Virginia
district3=1st
term_start3=January 3, 1977
term_end3=January 3, 1983
predecessor3=Thomas N. Downing
successor3=Herbert H. Bateman
date of birth=birth date and age|1946|12|28
place of birth=Baltimore, Maryland
dead=alive
date of death=
place of death=
law school=Washington and Lee University
spouse=Rosemary D. Trible
religion=

Paul Seward Trible, Jr. (born December 29, 1946, in Baltimore, Maryland), graduated from Hampden-Sydney College in 1968 where he received his Bachelor of Arts in History. In 1971, he received a Juris Doctor degree from Washington and Lee University School of Law and was soon after admitted to the Virginia bar.

Life in public service

Political career

Trible served as a law clerk for the U.S. District Court (1971–1972), as assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia (1972–1974), and as the Commonwealth's Attorney for Essex County, Virginia (1974–1976) before winning an election as a Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976. He was successfully re-elected in 1978 and 1980, and in 1982 received the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Harry F. Byrd, Jr. In November 1982, he edged out Virginia Lt. Governor Richard Joseph Davis, Jr. to win the Senate seat. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1983 to 1989, refusing to stand for re-election in 1988. Although at the time his stated reason for declining to run was a desire to spend more time with his family, some believed that Trible preferred to avoid a contest with Charles S. Robb, the popular former Governor. He re-entered politics the following year, running for governor in 1989. He was the early favorite to capture the GOP nomination for governor that year, but was challenged in the primary by former Virginia Attorney General J. Marshall Coleman. During the primary campaign, Coleman launched a series of negative campaign ads against Trible. Comfortably ahead in the polls, Trible did not answer Coleman's ads, which cost him dearly as Coleman managed to pull the upset. In the latter parts of his political career, Trible served as a member of the U.S. Delegation to the United Nations in 1988 and a Teaching Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, in 1989.

Christopher Newport University

In 1996, he became President of Christopher Newport University (VA), after a few years of practicing law. Under Trible’s leadership, CNU has grown immensely. Applications have soared by more than 600%, the average SAT score of incoming freshman has increased by over 250 points and the campus has added more than $500 million worth of capital construction, including new residence halls and student apartments, a new student center, a new library, and a state of the art performing arts center, Ferguson Center for the Arts, designed by world-renowned Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, Architects, LLP. However, Trible has also come under fire for some of his methods, including the attempted cuts of the master's programs in Computer Science, Physics and Biology, and his treatment of professors who successfully opposed him in these attempted cuts. The CNU president serves as Chairman of the Council of Presidents of Virginia’s public colleges and universities, and was a leader in winning approval by Virginia’s voters of the $1 billion bond referendum for capital construction. He also was instrumental in obtaining legislative approval for the restructuring of higher education to give colleges and universities expanded power to pursue excellence.

In late 2006, CNU’s Board of Visitors announced that a new library and a $500,000 endowed merit scholarship will be named in honor of President Trible and his wife for their leadership and many contributions to the success of CNU. The Paul and Rosemary Trible Library includes more than 110,000 square feet housing 400,000 volumes and is to be a dynamic teaching and learning facility, as well as the information technology center of the campus. In addition to the University's own collection, a joint public/private partnership between CNU and The Mariners' Museum has made it possible for the library to also house the largest maritime collection in the western hemisphere. The Trible library was dedicated on January 24, 2008 and its 14-story cupola marks the heart of the CNU campus.

Personal life

He is married to Rosemary Dunaway Trible and they have two children, Mary Katherine Trible Peters (married to Barrett W. R. Peters), and Paul S. Trible, III.

Publications

* Trible, Paul. [http://chronicle.com/weekly/v51/i45/45b01601.htm "Colleges Must Get Used to Collaborating With Congress"] The Chronicle of Higher Education 15 Jul. 2005: B16.
* Trible, Paul. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64471-2005Apr18.html "Letting Colleges Down"] The Washington Post 19 Apr. 2005: A12.

External links

*CongBio|T000367
* [http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/trelease-trimarchi.html Biography] at "The Political Graveyard"
* [http://about.cnu.edu/leadership/presidentTrible.cfm Biography] at "Christopher Newport University"
* [http://www.cnu.edu/ Christopher Newport University]
** [http://library.cnu.edu/ The Paul and Rosemary Trible Library]
** [http://fergusoncenter.cnu.edu/ Ferguson Center for the Arts]