The state-of-the-art fitness complex, occupying the college’s original 1925 gymnasium, contains cardio and free weight equipment, an aerobic/dance studio, a juice bar and even a rock climbing wall. It will anchor the northeast portion of the 155,000-square-foot athletic center, which will be dedicated Oct. 25.

“For as long as anyone can remember, Maxine and George Trotter have been integral members of the Monmouth College family,” said President Richard Giese. “Their generous gift to the college will insure that the new complex will serve the health and fitness needs of our students well into the future, as well as being a highly visible and key architectural component of the Huff Athletic Center.”

Mrs. Trotter, treasurer of the college, has served on the Monmouth College board of trustees since 1979. Mr. Trotter, who lettered in basketball, track and baseball at the college, served as head basketball coach in 1950, and was inducted into the college’s athletic hall of fame in 1992. Both the Trotters have received honorary LL.D. degrees and distinguished service from the college.

“The Trotters’ lifelong devotion to Monmouth, both through service and financial support, has been remarkable,” President Giese said. “A previous major gift, presented on the 50th anniversary of their graduation, established the Trotter Computerized Classroom in Wallace Hall.”

Commenting on the Trotters’ recent gift, Molly McNamara, director of wellness, said, “With our growing student enrollment at Monmouth, it has become quite clear that we need a facility that will accommodate the demands for as many as 200 students a day. Without question, the Trotter Fitness Complex will easily meet that demand while it provides our students access to some of the highest quality fitness equipment available today.”

The new fitness complex will more than double not only the space for aerobic and fitness equipment, but will also double the number of machines that students can use at any given time. McNamara said the complex will include a special room, complete with resilient wood flooring and audio and video systems, that will be used for aerobics classes, kickboxing, dance, cheerleading rehearsals and other special programs.

Commenting on the couple’s gift to the college, Mr. Trotter said, “Needless to say, we are totally impressed by what is going on at Monmouth College these days. With the addition of the new Huff Athletic Center, Monmouth will easily have one of the best campuses in the Midwest, bar none.

“But I think what is also remarkable is how the new, modern Huff Athletic Center is so carefully being incorporated in the existing structures of the original gymnasium and Glennie Gymnasium. It is a marvelous mix of the old and the new,” he said. “Maxine and I are quite proud to lend our names to the fitness complex and to the positive things that are happening at Monmouth College.”

Architects for the new Huff Athletic Center, sensitive to the decades of tradition and memories that were a part of the original gymnasium, carefully provided for the preservation of the massive limestone columns that once adorned the entrance to the gym from North Seventh Street. With the Trotters’ name etched into the limestone, the entrance to MC's original gymnasium will now be an elegant entrance to the Trotter Fitness Complex from the Huff Athletic Center.

Mrs. Trotter was a senior transfer student to Monmouth from Whittier College in Whittier, Calif., and spent much of her final year in the music department where she performed vocal solos in the Christmas “Messiah” concert and Gracie Peterson’s spring show. As a physical education major at Whittier, Mrs. Trotter received class credit for teaching a physical education class for the girls at nearby Kirkwood High School. Following graduation from Monmouth, both the Trotters taught at Stronghurst High School.

Mrs. Trotter currently serves as secretary-treasurer of the Murdy Foundation, established by her parents in 1958. Since 1991, she has been president of the family corporation and also serves as a Whittier College trustee.

Mr. Trotter came to Monmouth College in 1940 when, as a sophomore, he was named the starting center on Monmouth’s 11-1 Midwest Conference championship basketball team. His collegiate career was interrupted by World War II, during which time he flew combat missions over Japan as a B-29 pilot.

The Trotters, married in 1946, returned to Monmouth for the 1946-47 academic year to complete their degrees. After receiving a master’s degree from the University of Southern California in 1950, Mr. Trotter again returned to his old gymnasium, serving as the head basketball coach for a year and then as an admission counselor for a year during the Korean Conflict. He then began a distinguished 30-year career of high school teaching and coaching, first in Illinois and finally in California, where his basketball teams made that state’s Interscholastic Federation playoffs eight times.