J. E. Wallace Sterling was Stanford University's fifth president, serving from 1949 until 1968. During his presidency, Stanford evolved from a notable regional university into a leading national and eventually international university—developments in which Sterling played a critical part. Taking advantage of a postwar economic boom, federal interest in university research, and popular interest in higher education, Sterling championed robust fundraising, ambitious faculty recruitment, increasing selectivity in student admissions, and the construction of major new research facilities. This deeply researched historical study of Sterling's role at Stanford thus simultaneously illuminates a remarkable career in university leadership along with the development of one of America's top-ranked universities.

This is not, however, a simple success story, but instead a nuanced exploration of experimentation, uncertainty, disagreement, leaps of faith, accommodation, and compromise—within the university as well as between the university and its alumni, neighbors, and the public. Although Stanford had survived the Depression and World War II better than many of its peers, it did so at the cost of seriously deferred maintenance, notoriously low faculty salaries and morale, inadequate scholarship support, and outdated labs and libraries. Favoring gradualism and pragmatism, Sterling drew faculty into university governance and long-term planning, building a strong and able administrative team. The result was a remarkable and steadily sustained rise in the university's fortunes, which survived the campus turmoil of the Vietnam War era along with significantly changed expectations on the part of students, faculty, parents, and the wider public.

Roxanne L. Nilan was Stanford's second University Archivist, 1979–1990, and co-founder (with Fred Glover) and first director of the Stanford Oral History Project. She served as editor of the Stanford Historical Society's Sandstone & Tile, and as research historian and honorary curator at History San José. She is the author of many articles on aspects of Stanford history and co-authored The Stanford Album: A Photographic History (1989) and A Chronology of Stanford University and Its Founders (2001). Nilan received her B.A. and M.L.S. from UC Berkeley, and her master's and doctorate in American history from Stanford.

Cassius L. Kirk Jr. received his B.A. from Stanford and graduated with honors from the UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall). He served as staff counsel for business affairs at Stanford, 1960–78, coming to know many of the individuals featured here. He subsequently was business manager of Menlo College and became a successful real estate investor. Kirk, who died in 2014, was active in fundraising for both Stanford and Cal and endowed two Stanford professorships (including the Frederic O. Glover Professorship in Humanities and Social Sciences). He began researching this biography during his retirement.

Karen E. Bartholomew, Stanford class of 1971, worked at Stanford's News and Publication Service for 25 years, including as editor of Campus Report and the Stanford Observer. Bartholomew, who is a charter member of the Stanford Historical Society, has played active roles on society committees for more than 40 years. She is a co-author of A Chronology of Stanford University and Its Founders and edited Trees of Stanford and Environs (2005), the Historic Houses at Stanford series, and other society publications. The Historical Society's annual service award is named in her honor.