I. Overview
Title: Sister Trinita Flood Collection
Date: 1974-1982
Location: 04/14a-15e
Extent: 8 box (4 linear ft.)
Language: English
II. Biographical note
Sister Trinita Flood, O.P., 1974-1996
Sister Trinita grew up in Chicago where she worked as a legal assistant and a secretary. She had a lifelong interest in drama and also participated in many theatrical performances in the Chicago area during this period. In 1941, despite the protests of her mother, she joined the Adrian Dominican Order and eventually graduated from Siena Heights College. Post-graduation, she studied speech and drama at Catholic University and Northwestern before teaching at secondary schools in Chicago and St. Charles, Illinois.
Sister Trinita Flood became the fourth president of Barry College in 1974, following the retirement of Sister Dorothy Browne. Sister Trinita had been sent to Barry first in 1946, as a speech teacher, and served in that capacity for six years, after which she was assigned to an administrative position at St. Mary's Academy in St. Charles, Illinois. She returned to Barry in 1954 as registrar, and in 1958 she became Academic Dean, a position she held until 1962 when she was called to Adrian, Michigan, as Secretary General of the Adrian Dominican Congregation. Between 1968 and 1970 she served as teacher, registrar, dean and then president of St. Dominic College in Sr. Charles, Illinois.
Sister Trinita was one of the founders of the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center on the North Miami campus of Florida International University and she became the driving force in collecting and taping the memories of south Floridians who survived the Holocaust. The Center has become one of the most comprehensive Holocaust oral history collections in the world. On April 4, 1992, a dinner in her honor was held at the Alexander Hotel on Miami Beach, and she and Mother Genevieve were given a trip to the Holy Land.
Sister Trinita received many honors during her tenure as President of Barry College and later when she became Academic Dean at St. John Vianney Seminary.
III. The Collection
Memorabilia from her inauguration as President of Barry in 1974, some personal correspondence, miscellaneous pictures and newspaper clippings, various honors and tributes, her reports as President (1974-1981), minutes of meetings from different associations and committees and correspondence with legislators, in both Tallahassee and Washington, DC. There are also copies of her obituary and memorial Mass programs.
There is a scrapbook, "A Celebration of Life and Courage honoring Sister Trinita Flood for her work with the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center," which was started by Carol Whitmoyer and given to Sister Trinita for further entries.
IV. Container list
Box Title
01/14a Inauguration as President of Barry College
Inauguration Programs, 11/15/74
Holocaust Center Tribute
Invocation at FIU Commencement
Feature in Barry Mark
President’s Reports 1974-1981
Personal Correspondence
President’s Dinner 1975, 1976
President’s Dinner, 1977
Obituary/Memorial Masses
04/14b Holocaust Scrapbook
04/14c Awards, Proclamations, Papal Blessing
04/15a Correspondence with Legislators 1978-1982
Photo with Board of Trustees, American Savings & Loans
Address to College Assembly, 1974
Golden Jubilee of Sr. Trinita
Curriculum Vitae
Honors and Awards
Sister Trinita Flood Miscellany
St. Dominic College
St. John Vianney Seminary
04 /15b Correspondence of Sr. Trinita Flood, 1979-1980 (4 folders)
Florida Women for Ida Nudel
Fusion Dance Company
Carl T. Hoffman
Institute for Humanist Studies
04 / 15c Appointment Books (Sr. Trinita), 1976-1981 (5 books)
Appointment Books (Dorothy Jackson) 1977-1980 (2 books)
Appointment Book (Betty Burkett) 1981-82
04/15d Fl Assc Colleges & Univ (FACU) Correspondence (3 folders)
FACU Financial Reports
FACU Executive Committee (3 folders)
FACU Self-Study Committee, 1979
FACU Meetings (2 folders)
Florida Board of Regents Newsletter
Higher Education and National Affairs Newsletter
04/15e Society of the Arts
Campus Council Committee, 1977
Jewish Publication Society of America Correspondence
A Case Statement-Barry College, 1976
V. Administrative Information
Access Restrictions: This collection is open for research
Processed by: Sister Arnold Benedetto, O.P., revised by Ximena Valdivia, 2011
Preferred Citation: Sister Trinita Flood Collection, Barry University Archives and Special Collections, Miami Shores, Florida