At a time when the practice of medicine was a difficult profession for women to enter, Mosher went to Boston in 1869 to study under Dr. Lucy E. Sewall of the New England Hospital for Women and Children. She enrolled at U-M in 1871 and graduated with her MD in 1875; she was instrumental in establishing the first prison in the world for women. Mosher was appointed U-M’s first dean of women in 1896 and she continued to work as a general physician and a fundraiser for the Women’s League and Women’s Gymnasium. (Mosher is pictured, far left, with female athletes.) Mosher-Jordan Hall was established in 1930 in honor of Mosher and her successor, Myra B. Jordan.

Shapiro joined the economics faculty at U-M in 1964, ultimately serving as president at U-M from 1980-88. His wife, Vivian, pursued her education in social work, becoming associate professor in 1985. Shapiro is pictured here with Jesse Jackson during 1987 negotiations with members of the Black Action Movement III. He took on the role of president at his alma mater, Princeton, in 1988.

President Marion LeRoy Burton and Fielding Yost celebrate the dedication of Yost Field House here, in 1923. (Pictured from left: Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby, Burton, unknown, and Yost.) Yost Field House was just one building that would appear on campus due to Burton’s organizational, diplomatic, and fundraising skills as U-M president (1920-25). He is perhaps best known for the Burton Memorial Tower. Designed by Albert Kahn, the tower was erected during the 1935-36 school year. Burton always envisioned a memorial to the 236 U-M students who had lost their lives in World War I. Students, colleagues, and alumni fulfilled his dream posthumously.

From “The Long Note” at heritage.umich.edu: Michigan traditions — a high-stepping marching band, pep bands, colorful halftime shows, Band-O-Rama, symphony tours — all have their roots in Revelli. He directed the University’s bands, including the Michigan Marching Band, from 1935-71. His demands (“Stop conducting me!”), his exasperation (“Why don’t you get a hammer and be done with it?”), and his encouragement (“Be dedicated in whatever you do — even if it’s kissing your girl goodnight”) ring in alumni ears generations after graduating. At the core of it all was his credo: “We do not teach music. Rather, we teach people through music.”

Within her first year as U-M’s dean of women (1902-22), Jordan (second from left, circa 1910) became famous for being able to recognize and greet all the women on campus by name. She was instrumental in raising funds for the creation of the Martha Cook women’s residence, as well as the Helen Newberry, Alumnae House, Betsy Barbour House, and Adelia Cheever House residences. (Pictured from left: William Waite, Jordan, Regent Hill, Henry M. Bates, Mrs. Waite, and Mrs. Bates at the Forestry Farm in about 1910.) Mosher-Jordan Hall was established in 1930 in honor of Jordan and Eliza Mosher.

Vaughan was named the first dean of U-M’s School of Public Health in 1941. The son of a physician, Vaughan chose to pursue a career in epidemiology and wrote his dissertation on the “Observations on Typhoid Fever in Detroit.” He was the first person at the University of Michigan to earn the Doctor of Public Health degree, and was a passionate advocate for public health education and preventative medicine. During his deanship, Vaughan oversaw major breakthroughs against influenza and polio.

Hutchins departed Cornell University to become dean of U-M’s Department of Law in 1895, where he would sit atop the largest institution of its class in the Union. He was delighted to return to Ann Arbor and the University where he’d earned his bachelor in philosophy in 1871, and where he’d taught law from 1883-87. He would go on to become the first Michigan student to become president of his alma mater (1910-20). During that period he accomplished a separately organized graduate school, dormitories for women students, organization of alumni activities, and more. Here, he proceeds to Commencement in 1921.

In 1957, Matthaei and his wife, Mildred Hague Matthaei, donated some 200 acres of land that would be combined with the adjacent Matteson Farm to create the Matthaei Botanical Gardens at U-M. The gardens are dedicated to environmental stewardship and to enriching the understanding and enjoyment of the natural world. (Matthaei also donated the land and provided the money to build the original Huron Valley Humane Society on Cherry Hill Road.) In 1958, he received an honorary degree from U-M President Harlan Hatcher. A University regent at the time of his death in 1973, Matthaei started his career as an engineer and for a time owned an interest in the Detroit Lions.

Hatcher, eighth president at U-M (1951-67), actually earned three college degrees from Michigan’s most notorious rival, the Ohio State University. Even so, he helped expand the U-M budget from $44.5 million to more than $186 million, and enrollment from 17,000 to 37,000, during his tenure. He also established additional campuses in Flint and Dearborn. In 1968, the Graduate Library was named after him. He wrote three novels and several academic volumes.

H.O. “Fritz” Crisler served as U-M’s head football coach from 1938-47, athletic director from 1941-68, and chairman of the Board in Control of Intercollegiate Athletics from 1941-68. Before arriving at U-M in the late 1930s, Crisler had played football at the University of Chicago, where his coach nicknamed him “Fritz” after the famed violinist Fritz Kreisler. During his time as Michigan’s head football coach, he amassed an overall record of 71-16-3. Crisler is pictured (far right) with the family of U-M’s famed halfback Tom Harmon (1938-40), reading the official notice that Harmon survived after being shot down over China, 1943.