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Mike Tripp Reflects On His La Salle Years
When asked about his fondest memories of La Salle Academy, Mike Tripp ’64 says that there were two — “our team winning the state wrestling championship and being the overall season highest scorer in the state with an undefeated high school career — and, more importantly having the ‘much needed’ support of all the Brothers to maintain a B average in order to play sports!”
“I was a pretty good student in some subjects such as plain geometry where I had a 96 average thanks to the fact that the subject was really based on logic,” said the former U.S. Marine who served in Vietnam (more on that later). “On the other hand, I had to sit out the Thanksgiving football game because I didn’t read Beowolf in Mr. Paolino’s class but I worked hard and earned a 96 average the second quarter.”
“My favorite teachers were Brother William who taught religion and Brother Anthony Hart who taught economic history and who was way ahead of the curve in the way he taught,” continued Mike, a member of the La Salle AcademyHall of Fame and the owner of a thriving accounting firm. “I fondly remember Brother Michael who is now in Long Island and I correspond with Brother Tim Rapa.”
When asked about his fondest memories of La Salle Academy, Mike Tripp ’64 says that there were two — “our team winning the state wrestling championship and being the overall season highest scorer in the state with an undefeated high school career — and, more importantly having the ‘much needed’ support of all the Brothers to maintain a B average in order to play sports!”
“I was a pretty good student in some subjects such as plain geometry where I had a 96 average thanks to the fact that the subject was really based on logic,” said the former U.S. Marine who served in Vietnam (more on that later). “On the other hand, I had to sit out the Thanksgiving football game because I didn’t read Beowolf in Mr. Paolino’s class but I worked hard and earned a 96 average the second quarter.”
“My favorite teachers were Brother William who taught religion and Brother Anthony Hart who taught economic history and who was way ahead of the curve in the way he taught,” continued Mike, a member of the La Salle Academy Hall of Fame and the owner of a thriving accounting firm. “I fondly remember Brother Michael who is now in Long Island and I correspond with Brother Tim Rapa.”
Speaking of his Hall of Fame acceptance speech, Mike said that in that speech “…I had to apologize to all the Brothers and Sisters who must be rolling over in their graves at the thought of me being inducted into any hall of fame. “On the other hand, my most meaningful experience at La Salle was the constant encouragement from the Brothers to do better,” continued Mike.
“My closest friends at La Salle were the guys on the football and wrestling teams as well as the other guys from East Providence that went to La Salle,” said Mike while looking out at the beautiful yard at his home in Barrington. “I needed discipline and being on the football and wrestling teams provided that.”
The next phase of his life was a four-year stint in the aforementioned U.S. Marines, a good part of which was spent in battle during the Vietnam War.
“From the ‘mental test’ of basic training at Parris Island to helicopter school to being in combat, you learn a lot about yourself in the Marines,” said the 64-year-old father of two daughters, Sandy and Wendy.
During his tour of duty in Vietnam, Mike became the subject of a famous United Press International (UPI) photograph. As written in Smithsonian Magazine: “UPI photographer Frank Johnston found himself facedown on the terra-cotta floor of a Catholic church in Nha Tho An Hoa, Vietnam, as a fierce barrage of enemy fire hit the building. It was May 15, 1967.
‘I looked up and saw a Marine with what they call the thousand-yard stare,’ Johnston recalls, ‘and I lifted my Leica and snapped his picture. The soldier’s gaze never left my lens.’ The resulting image made the front pages of newspapers across the United States the next day. As the shelling eased, the Marine and the photographer wordlessly carried the wounded to safety, but
Johnston never got the young man’s name.” The young man was Mike Tripp. To read more of that Smithsonian story go to: www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/The_Thousand-Yard_Stare.html#ixzz1Zp7UXZND.
“I got an early out from the Marines and through the VeteransAdministration discovered that I had an aptitude for accounting. So, I came home and enrolled at Bryant College and earned a degree in accounting and went to work for Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. (now KPMG),” continued Mike. “I made a series of moves in the world of business accounting before coming to the realization that I could not work for someone else and in 1989 I began my own accounting firm.”
That firm has grown exponentially over that two-and one-half decades to the point as Mike says “that I can now take most of the summer off.”
La Salle Academy is a high school rich in history and grounded in the person and teachings of Jesus and the Catholic faith, which are core to the school's life and culture. The De La Salle Middle School provides a strong holistic foundation for students to transition into high school. The high school and middle school provide students of diverse ethnic, economic, and religious backgrounds, a community to foster growth in the tradition of St. John Baptist de La Salle’s ideals of faith, service, and community.
