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FOR MORE INFORMATION
CONTACT: Susie P. Gonzalez
Jan. 29, 2008
Trinity University Honors Mark W. Kline with Distinguished Alumnus Award; Erich Menger with Spirit of Trinity Award
SAN ANTONIO – Two of Trinity University’s outstanding graduates are among the biggest boosters of the campus, and both will be honored with accolades by the Trinity University Alumni Association. Dr. Mark W. Kline ’79, who has been treating children with AIDS since the 1980s, was named the Trinity University 2008 Distinguished Alumnus and Erich Menger ’66, who owns a San Antonio catering business and is active in community life, received the 2008 Spirit of Trinity Award.
Both will be recognized at an Alumni Awards Dinner on Friday, Feb. 8, in the Great Hall on the Trinity campus. Trinity University President John R. Brazil will award the honors.
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Mark W. Kline |
Dr. Kline has helped develop clinical therapies to radically change the outlook for children with the HIV and AIDS viruses from one of little hope to successful treatments that are allowing children to enter adulthood with an improved quality of life. A professor of pediatrics and chief of retrovirology at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, he oversees an ambitious program that encompasses care and treatment for children infected with HIV and AIDS and for health professional education and training programs for 20 African countries, Mexico, Romania, Ukraine, and China. Certified in both pediatrics and infectious diseases, he has authored more than 230 scientific articles and textbook chapters and presented more than 280 national and international lectures on subjects related to infectious diseases of children and international child health.
He received a bachelor’s degree in biology summa cum laude from Trinity University in 1979. He earned an M.D. degree with honors from Baylor College of Medicine in 1981. Among his many honors and awards are the Dag Hammarskjold Award from the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care in 1998, the Association of American Medical Colleges Humanism in Medicine Award in 2002, and the annual award in HIV/AIDS of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention in 2006.
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Erich Menger |
Mr. Menger, who owns Menger and Associates, a special events and full service catering firm in San Antonio, graduated in 1966 with a degree in sociology. Not only has he employed hundreds of Trinity students in his catering operation, he is a founding director of Chi Delta Tau Foundation, an arm of the social fraternity that raises funds for scholarships awarded to active members of the organization. He also is involved in the University’s chapel program, orchestrating the annual Christmas Vespers service. When residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina arrived by busloads in San Antonio, he organized the Trinity men’s soccer team to help set up cots at the Kelly USA shelter. In addition, he frequently visits veterans at Brook Army Medical Center and works with handicapped veterans who have lost limbs during their military service. He has served on the Trinity University National Alumni Board, chairing committees when asked, and moving from that appointment to serve as the alumni representative on the committee drawing up the Quality Enhancement Plan in connection with Trinity’s reaccreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
The awards dinner will be Friday, Feb. 8 with a receiving line at 6:15 p.m. and remarks at 7 p.m. in the Great Hall at Trinity’s Chapman Center. Cost is $35. For information or to make a reservation, contact the Office of Alumni Relations at 210-999-8404.
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© 2008 Trinity University