Crowning glory
To work at the University of Michigan is to know one thing: Michigan alumni love their alma mater.
And it’s not always easy to love an institution while living in a cynical society that prioritizes disillusionment over idealism.
But Wolverines are a unique breed.
To quote Heritage writer and passionate Michigan alumnus Jim Tobin: “It’s one thing, as an individual, to love learning — to be aware and curious. It’s quite another to support an institution whose whole purpose is to nurture and fulfill that love. An institution like Michigan is one of the crowning glories of this society, and others like it, that have valued education.”
Just one of the 250 pages in “Our Michigan,” a coffee-table book published by University of Michigan Press in 2024.
In celebration of that crowning glory, the University of Michigan Press has released Our Michigan, a family scrapbook of sorts that highlights the stories and images of the people who created this cherished institution. Edited by Tobin and richly illustrated, the book presents the University of Michigan’s story in a mosaic of fascinating details — leaders who steered the institution; faculty who changed students’ lives; and alumni who changed the world.
Each page reminds the reader of landmarks, milestones, and treasured moments in Michigan history. It is both a repository of our collective memory and a source of inspiration as the University embraces the challenges of its third century.
Historian, author, and Heritage writer Kim Clarke partnered with Tobin in producing the coffee-table book. Readers will recognize their familiar voices as they travel through time. Your humble Michigan Today editor contributed as well, along with colleagues at Michigan Creative, Michigan Photography, University of Michigan Press, the Bentley Historical Library, and other units on campus.
“The University is a means of defying our own mortality,” Tobin says. “It connects all the faculty, students, and alumni back through the generations and into the future — if we bear the burden of upholding its purpose.”
Sometimes all it takes is a good book to remind us of that purpose.
