When failing health forced "Skipper" Coffin to resign from the faculty of the UNC School of Journalism in 1956, he told Chancellor Robert House that he and his colleagues had been "consecrated to the common good." As he often did, Coffin here used a lofty phrase to emphasize that the school had been dedicated to responding to the needs of newspapers and the state. Tom Bowers conducted dozens of interviews and pored over a century of newspaper accounts, correspondence, and university archives to tell the story of how such a commitment has enlightened and shaped journalism education at UNC–Chapel Hill for 100 years. He reveals how a succession of leaders and teachers were dedicated to students, the university, the state, the nation, and the world. Society and media changed, but the school's response to change was constant.

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