The University of Nebraska at Omaha, inaugurated in 1968, emerged from the Municipal University of Omaha established in 1931, which grew out of the University of Omaha founded in 1908. In each of the school's three lives, the faculty sought to provide quality education for recent high school graduates and adults returning to school in a well-rounded learning environment. The commuter college moved from relying on charitable donations and tuition to a city tax base and ultimately state revenues. The campus grew numerically and spatially. Accommodating students and faculty, setting priorities and funding initiatives is a continuous challenge not always met expeditiously. The exciting visual cavalcade and text captures a century of public higher education in America's urban heartland and the role of graduates in American society.