Trouche

Class of 1979

Timothy Joseph "Tim" Trouche (1957-1979)

Tim Trouche was born in Charleston, South Carolina on April 14, 1957. He attended Porter Gaud, an independent Episcopal Day School, at which an upper school prize has been established in his honor and memory. Tim attended the University of Virginia and pledged the Beta Upsilon Chapter of Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity. The following tribute was given by Tom Priscilla at the Necrology held on April 10, 2011 at the UVA Chapel as part of the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the founding of the Beta Upsilon Chapter of Pi Kappa Phi. Tim can best be remembered as an irreverent optimist. He drank and swore like a sailor but with a certain flair that only a true Southerner can possess. The Trouches, a large Catholic family from Charleston, South Carolina, sent three other children - Teresa, Paul and Perry - to the University. I had the distinct honor of escorting his sister Teresa to the 1980 Rose Ball. Tim must have been a toolie at heart in high school. One summer job involved driving a truck to the barrier islands around Charleston to perform mosquito counts so the authorities would know where and when to spray. Tim with his boat at the ready would drive to the islands, spend the day water skiing and drinking beer before changing back to his work clothes and returning with the supposed mosquito counts. His scientific research was cutting edge - even Stephen Hawking was unable to develop a formula which provided any correlation between the two dependent variables - water skiing and drinking beer and the one independent variable – speed of said activities - to the prevalence of mosquitoes in any given area. Tim pledged Pi Kappa Phi at the University of Georgia and transferred here his third year. While at Charlottesville, Tim’s earlier interest in mathematics waned as he found a new passion for local history, travelling the rural byways of Virginia through his night studies in locations such as Amherst, Fredericksburg, Hollins, Lynchburg, and Staunton.

In the summer of his third year, Tim was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and underwent chemotherapy which he affectionately referred to as his rat poison. He celebrated when his doctor told him upon completion of the chemo program that he needed to gain weight and that drinking beer in moderation was an acceptable part of the program. As with most things he did in life Tim was not one to do things in moderation. Unfortunately, his cancer metastasized. One of his quips to his mother during the final stages of his life was that he would be the first in his family to meet his younger sister who had died in a miscarriage about three months before she was to be born. That was Tim. He had a zeal for life that few possess. An infectious laugh and terrific sense of humor that knew no bounds.

Jeff Harris shared the following humorous recollection:

I do have a funny recollection about that the old song where you rhymed a brother's name was an issue with him. For example: "Oh it was Jeff, Jeff, Jeff - whose dates were blind and deaf - in the halls, in the halls... of old Pi Kappa Phi"

Tim HATED the fact that Trouche rhymed so easily with douche and he refused to allow the song to be sung that way.

Mark Carrico wrote the following:

Tim died just before Thanksgiving break in the Fall of 1979, I think. I delivered a eulogy for him at a memorial service at the University Chapel organized by Skinny McGinty and me - most of the brothers attended, as I recall.

The Christmas 1979 edition of The Cavalier was dedicated to Tim and the following poem by Christina Georgina Rossetti appeared in his honor.

REMEMBER me when I am gone away,