Alumni Stories
Yi-Fang Wu
In 1919, Yi-Fang Wu graduated from Jinling College and taught at the Government Higher Normal for Women in Beijing. She received a Barbour Scholarship at the University of Michigan in 1922. Completing her Ph.D. in Biology in 1928, she went on to a distinguished career in higher education, eventually becoming dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Nanjing University, and serving as Commissioner of Education for Jiangsu Province. In 1933, she represented China at the International Women’s Congress. In March 1945, she was a member of the Chinese delegation at the founding session of the United Nations in San Francisco. Wu was also a delegate to the National People's Congresses from 1961 to 1978.
William Paul Bostic
William P. Bostic, a Michigan native, lived in Ann Arbor during World War II with his parents, Samuel and Maggie. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1940 and became a sergeant with the 301st Fighter Squadron—the Tuskegee Airmen, an African American fighter group. William Bostic served in both the European and Pacific theaters.
James Terrell
James R. Terrell moved to Ann Arbor in his teens. He graduated from Ann Arbor High School in 1939 and from U-M’s College of Literature, Science and the Arts in 1943. He attended the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts from 1943-1945, after which he enlisted in the Navy as a chaplain. While stationed in the South, he experienced the effects of segregation and discrimination against African Americans. Of his time in Orange, Texas he stated, “It has been harder to fight off this indiscriminate hatred—indeed it is because I have made such pleasant friendships with the Southern fellows stationed here that I know that all Southerners are not bad—perhaps only a few. Much of the evil of the South stems solely from the social structure here which forces people into certain molds often even in spite of themselves. It still amazes me that the Civil War is still such a live issue in these parts even in spite of the fact that two major world holocausts have occurred in the meantime.”
Professional Careers