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Acting President
The Michigan Alumnus
Harry Hutchins, Acting President
At the meeting of the Regents, held Sept. 28 Dean Harry B. Hutchms, of the Law Department of the University, was made Acting President of the Uni versity for one year. The appoint ment at this time, however, was a formality, as this action of the commit tee of the Regents charged with chos ing a successor to the Presidency had been made public early in August.
The University is to be congrat ulated upon this solution of the difficulty with which it has been con fronted since the announcement of Dr. Angell's resignation. It is very un likely that the honor which the Re gents have done Mr. Hutchins in ask ing him to be the immediate successor of Dr. Angell tempted him to accept the post; it was, rather, his own sense of duty and his intimate knowledge of the immediate and imperative require ments of the University.
Appreciat ing this fact, we are especially glad to express our own personal pleasure in the choice, especially since we feel that we represent all who know Mr. Hutchins and are familiar with the University and its problems. Mr. Hutchins's sympathy with the needs of the modern University is well known, while his success as Dean of the Law School and his former year of service as Acting President of the University, amply justify the Regents in their choice.
Mr. Hutchins was born at Lisbon, New Hampshire, April 8, 1847. He came to Michigan with his parents in 1867, and entered the University from which he was graduated with the class of 1871—the Class Orator and Commencement speaker. For the year following he was in charge of the public schools of Owosso—returning to Ann Arbor in 1872 as Instructor in History and Rhetoric.
He became Assistant Pro fessor in 1873, a position which he held for three years. He had in the meantime however been preparing himself for the practice of the law, and he resigned to become a partner with his father-in-law, in the firm of Crocker & Hutchins of Mt. Clemens and Detroit. For eight years this firm continued practicing most successfully in the highest courts of the state.
He was recalled to the University in 1884 as Jay Professor of Law, a position which he filled so ably that when the trustees of Cor nell, four years later, were looking for a man to organize a law department their choice fell upon him.
He was recalled to the University of Michigan, in 1895, after successfully estab lishing the Cornell Law School, as Dean of the Department of Law. During President Angell's absence in 1897-98 as United States Minister to Turkey he served the University with great ability as acting President.