Remembering President Emeritus Fleming

By: Heather Newman | Date: January 12, 2010
Remembering President Emeritus Fleming

Robben Wright Fleming, president of the University of Michigan during the tumultuous years of 1968-1978 and again in 1988, and UM Press author of Tempests into Rainbows, passed away yesterday in Ann Arbor at the age of 93.

In honor of his passing, we wanted to share this excerpt from 1996's Tempests, in which he reflects on his life and looks forward to the future:

"Sally and I were both children of the Great Depression in the 1920s and 1930s. We were surrounded by loving families. We thought we were lucky to find jobs that enabled us to go to school, and it was possible then, as it is not now, to earn enough to pay all of one's own expenses. We were overtaken and parted by World War II, but we survived. We raised three children, of whom we are very proud. The academic world came to us by surprise, but we loved it. The law was always my first love as a discipline, and I had the good fortune to serve as a law professor for several years. We were caught up in the years of student unrest, but my experience in the tumultuous field of labor relations made it easier, and Sally's ability to endure that period was of enormous importance. In retrospect, we were lucky!

"The world of our children and grandchildren is different. The family milieu we knew no longer exists for an enormous number of children. At the other end of the life cycle, those of us who are aging are living longer and using more of the nation's resources to support us. The standard of living we have enjoyed may not be sustainable, despite the rhetoric of the politicians.

"Still and all, in spite of what may seem to be a recitation of all the troubles of our current world, I am an inveterate optimist. The materialistic world we have so emphasized in recent years is far less important than the care and concern we ought to have for each other. The question is going to be whether we want a society that cares, not whether it is possible to have one."

For more on Fleming's life and passing, please see the University of Michigan Record Update story.