This biography details Hovde's life and times from his birth at Erie,
Pennsylvania, through his boyhood at Devils Lake, North Dakota, and
includes his student days at the University of Minnesota and in England
and Europe as a Rhodes scholar. In addition, it outlines his career from
the time he returned to the United States from England in 1932, as well
as when he went back again in 1941 as the United States secretary for
American-British scientific research and development exchange efforts.
Principally, it covers his twenty-five years as president of Purdue
University, his impact on higher education generally, and his retirement
in 1971. The book depicts Hovde the president and Hovde the man. It
focuses on the growth of Purdue University from the post-World War II
years through the tumultuous times of the late 1960s and Hovde's own
comments on those periods.