A Lifetime of Memories

    In 1953, she enrolled in kindergarten down on Monument Avenue.
    After the first grade, she transferred to Collegiate Country Day, where the Lower School stands today.
    As a seventh grader, she crossed the bridge to the newly relocated Girls School, loved every moment of her time there, made many lifelong friends, and graduated in 1966, which just happened to be the 50th anniversary of her alma mater’s humble origin.    
    After several years as a paralegal, she returned to North Mooreland Road in 1988.
    First, she was a part-time switchboard operator, then a development office staffer tasked with organizing the school’s 75th anniversary celebration.
    In 1990, she joined the staff of the Middle School and has held forth, first as secretary, later as assistant to MS head Charlie Blair, for the past 25 years.  
    This June, after 40 years on the Collegiate campus, Trygve will retire, right in the midst of yet another institutional milestone: The Centennial.
    “I’ve loved getting up every morning and coming here,” she said one afternoon recently.  “I’m very dedicated to Collegiate and passionate about it. The school’s been my life’s blood.”
    Sit back for a moment and join her as she reminisces and reflects about the people, places, and moments that she treasures.
    “The Country Day School had about three buildings, just the basics, no frills,” she said.  “It was small and easy-going.  We had a lot of fun.
    “The campus was mostly woods.  When construction (north of the creek) began, they just bulldozed the trees.
    “What we have now far exceeds anything we could have imagined back then.”
    Enduring friendships greatly enhanced her experience.
    “We had a lot of really good, close relationships,” she continued.  “A pack of about 10 classmates and I still get together quite often.
    “We’ve known each other so long. When we were in school, we saw each other every day, even on weekends.  We lived around each other. It’s just that warm, fuzzy feeling you have here.”
    She’s never forgotten Helen Moon, a Collegiate icon who taught English from 1945 through 1973.
    “She was a young woman who was engaged to be married, contracted polio, and decided not to marry,” Trygve said.  “She lived with her sister in Windsor Farms where I grew up.
    “I’m not sure how it happened, but I rode with Miss Moon to Monument Avenue for two years. Her limousine was big enough for the driver to lift her in and to carry her wheelchair.
    “When the schools merged, she was still teaching. I had a special bond with her. Her toughness that many viewed as meanness was just her way of making us push our limits.  
    “Even today, we can all recall things we had to memorize and recite for her, like the Prologue to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales: "Whan that Aprille with his shores soot the drought of Marche hath perced to the roote..."
    Amongst friends, conversation about the rivalry between the Greens and the Golds never seems to end.
    Her senior year, Trygve was captain of the Greens.
    “My friend Beverly Randolph was captain of the Gold team,” Trygve continued.  “Every time we get together, she reminds me that the Golds won The Cup that year.  We recently had a reunion, and she left signs all over the place that said, ‘Golds Won The Cup’ and ‘Golds Rule.’  Just rubbing it in.”
    Over the years, Trygve has given heart and soul to Collegiate.  Her steady hand, unflappable nature, attention to detail, institutional memory, and commitment are legendary.
    “As Bill Reeves (Blair’s predecessor as MS head) once said, you need to leave before you reach your ‘sell-by date,’” she said.  “I think I’m reaching it.  It’s a good time to go.
    “I like the opportunity to help out with grandchildren and do the things with friends that I haven’t been able to do because I’ve been working.
    “It’s bittersweet, and I’ll miss it.
    “Collegiate is a very special place.”
                    -- Weldon Bradshaw

    Trygve and her husband Bill, who passed away in 2011, sent their children Lee ’96 and Churchill ’98 to Collegiate.  Lee and her daughters Grace (5) and Hayden (4) live in Havre de Grace, MD.  Churchill, his wife Alison, and their children Will (7) and Jackson (5) live in Richmond.  Will is a first grader at Collegiate, and Jackson will begin kindergarten here in the fall.