Paul Seward Trible Jr. (born December 29, 1946) is an American attorney, politician and academic administrator. Trible was the former president of Christopher Newport University until his retirement in 2021. He was a Republican politician from Virginia, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives for three terms and the U.S. Senate for one term. Education and early career Trible attended Hampden–Sydney College, where he a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and graduated in 1968 with a Bachelor of Arts in history. In 1971, he received a Juris Doctor degree from Washington and Lee University School of Law and was soon after admitted to the Virginia Bar. He served as a law clerk for a federal judge from 1971 to 1972, and then as an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia from 1972 to 1974. Trible was later inducted as an alumnus initiate into Omicron Delta Kappa at Hampden-Sydney College in 1977. Political career In 1973, at age 26, Trible was elected as Commonwealth's Attorney for Essex County, Virginia, serving from 1974 to 1976. He was appointed to the Virginia Law Enforcement Officers Training and Standards Commission in 1976 and at age 29 in November was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, winning reelection in 1978 and 1980. In 1982, the 35-year-old Trible received the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Harry F. Byrd Jr., defeating Lieutenant Governor Dick Davis in the general election. After serving in the U.S. Senate from 1983 to 1989, Trible declined to seek reelection in 1988. During the last year of his Senate term, he served simultaneously as a member of the U.S. Delegation to the United Nations. In 1989, Trible was the early favorite to capture the GOP nomination for governor; however, Marshall Coleman narrowly won the nomination and ultimately lost to Democrat Douglas Wilder. In 1989, between his retirement from the Senate, and his run for governor, Trible was a teaching fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. After his political career, Trible briefly returned to practicing law with Laxalt, Washington, Perito and Dubuc of Washington, D.C. and Shuttleworth, Ruloff, Giordano and Kahle, P.C. of Virginia Beach, Virginia. Elections 1976: Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives with 48.56% of the vote, defeating Robert E. Quinn (D) and Mary B. McClaine (I). 1978: Re-elected with 72.06% of the