Trinity's "first curveball specialist," George M. Ferris '16 led the great 1914 Trinity baseball team with an impressive ERA of 0.95, one of the lowest in Trinity sports history. He also ran indoor track as part of the one mile relay team that competed in the annual Naval Militia meet at the Hartford Armory.

Ferris would go on to be one of the great supporters of Trinity College and became the namesake for the Ferris Athletic Center. 

Born in 1893 in Newtown, Connecticut, George Mallette Ferris was the son of George Blackman Ferris and Bertha (Clark) Ferris. He was named after his maternal grandfather, George Mallette, who Bertha had lived with through much of her youth. Sadly, George's father died in 1899, when little George was just six years old. His mother, Bertha, took over the family farm and was listed in the 1920 U.S. Census as a "farmerette," a female farmer, along with several of her neighbors who were also widows. 

The second oldest of four brothers, along with a sister, George appears to be only one in his family to attend college. Herbert, the oldest brother, had to help out on the farm, and later ran his own grain store. Albert became a bank teller and Charles, the youngest brother, followed in the footsteps of his father (and mother) and became a farmer. 

Perhaps for this reason, George M. Ferris was most appreciative of how his Trinity education had transformed his life, and he knew this even as a very young man. Serving in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War I, he wrote a letter to Trinity Flavel S. Luther, and told him that, "You do not know how proud I am to be on the graduate roster of Trinity College." 

After the war, George joined the bond firm, S.W. Strauss and helped them open their first office in Washington, D.C. In 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, George "showed both courage and optimism," according to the Baltimore Sun, when he opened his own investment banking firm, Ferris & Co. He grew it into one of the top regional investment banks and in 1988 merged with the Baltimore firm of Baker & Watts, forming Ferris, Baker, & Watts, which itself was acquired by RBC in 2008. George was also one of the founders of the Washington Stock Exchange, a regional stock exchnage that later merged with the Philadelphia Stock Exchange that eventually became a part of Nasdaq. George was a key member of the Mid-Atlantic securities community for some 7 decades. 

But more than anything he was a huge supporter of his alma mater, serving on the Board of Trustees for 18 years, serving on the Board of Fellows, and as president of the Baltimore-Washington Alumni Association. 

"His many gifts to the College, which were remarkable for their breadth, include undergraduate scholarships, the Ferris professorship of corporate finance and investments, a lectureship in economics, and the athletic center that bears his name," wrote the Trinity Alumni Magazine on his death in 1992 at the age of 99.

"I want to know that my gifts will go on for perpetuity," he once said. "and I also want to see Trinity remain at the top of New England colleges."