John Alfred Hannah was president of Michigan State College for 28 years (1941–1969), making him the longest serving of MSU's presidents. He is credited with transforming the school from a regional undergraduate college into a large national research institution. After his resignation from the university, Hannah became head of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Hannah at a USAID ceremony in 1969
The Hannah Administration Building is named after Hannah.
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States.
After the introduction of the Morrill Act in 1862, the state designated the college a land-grant institution in 1863, making it the first of the land-grant colleges in the United States. The college became coeducational in 1870. Today, Michigan State has rapidly expanded its footprint across the state of Michigan with facilities all across the state and one of the largest collegiate alumni networks with 634,000 members.
John Clough Holmes, co-founder of the Michigan State Agricultural Society and the founder of the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, now Michigan State University. His legacy is often contrasted with that of John Harvard.
Liberty Hyde Bailey, namesake of Bailey Hall at Cornell, often called the "Father of American Horticulture," graduated from the Agricultural College in 1882
Matilda Dodge Wilson, co-founder the Oakland campus of Michigan State University, now Oakland University, with her husband Alfred Wilson, and John A. Hannah.
Michigan Agricultural College's Laboratory Row in 1912: Horticulture, Bacteriology, Botany, Dairy, Entomology, and Agriculture.
