Initial experiences with science during student years at University of Michigan; brief period as high school teacher; spent 1910 at Eberhard Karls Universitat in T bingen under Friedrich Paschen, began work in infrared spectroscopy. Return to University of Michigan, 1910; appointment as chairman of Department of Physics, 1917, scientific contributions of faculty such as Ralph Sawyer, Samuel Goudsmit, George Uhlenbeck, Otto Laporte and others during 1920s; development of the department as a research institution and relationships among members. Establishment of the Michigan Summer Symposia in Theoretical Physics in the 1930s with visiting European physicists. Critical evaluations of former students. Also mentioned at some length are Nelson Fuson, John Strong, Ernest Baker, James Cork, Walter Colby and Floyd Firestone.