This is a four-year labor of love by a group of alumni of the University of Michigan. It depicts the contribution by the University to the public life of the country at a turning point in our national history.Our country has for more than three hundred years been engaged in developing an educational system, culminating in the colleges and universities, public and private. The success of such a program is properly measured by the degree to which it contributes enlightened leadership to the communities, large and small, which provide its support.The present volume shows how one institution, at one period in American history, provided from among its graduates and faculty members a generous measure of leadership in a variety of important public functions. The collected result provides further evidence that American higher education justifies by its output the effort that has gone into its establishment and continued support.