96 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 



and every year's service from the first to the last was of increasing 

 value to the College. He was a practical business man and gave 

 his attention largely to the handling of the finances of the College. 

 He had little patience with glittering generalities. Exactness in 

 method and clearly defined purposes, with complete records of 

 all transactions in which public funds were employed, were 

 matters of great concern to him. Governor Bagley, in naming 

 him at his first appointment, said, "I want a good business man 

 in the college management," and in selecting Mr. Wells he 

 performed a most valuable service to the institution, the impress 

 of which was etched into the College history during a period of 

 more than a quarter of a century. 



For many years the alumni of the College, while not criticizing 

 the action of any governor in making the appointments, argued 

 that there should be a graduate of the institution on its board of 

 management, and Henry G. Reynolds, of Old Mission, was the 

 first selection which recognized this expression and influence of 

 the Alumni Association. Mr. Reynolds brought into the atmos- 

 phere of the board a new element. He was closely in touch 

 with a large number of the graduates of the College; he under- 

 stood their contentions for modifications in the trend of the 

 College, and was fortunate in having a disposition which harmo- 

 nized with the other elements of the board, and from the very 

 outset his influence became strongly in evidence in the activities 

 of the board. 



Col. William B. McCreery, of Flint, came upon the board 

 after having filled various positions in the state government and 

 with a very clear understanding of the elements of opposition 

 which had been so strongly in evidence during the earlier years of 

 the college history. From the very outset he was ready to fight 

 for the institution and would not for a moment listen to adverse 

 criticism without putting up an aggressive defense. He was 

 a man of quick intuition, ready in alternatives, earnest in his 

 methods, a good story-teller, and never knew what it was to be 



