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.