An autobiography of Frederick D. Patterson, past president of Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama, is presented. Based on recorded interviews with Dr. Patterson, the account begins with coverage of his family background, his boyhood and personal life, and his education. The book focuses on Patterson's professional experiences as teacher and president of Tuskegee Institute, as founder of the United Negro College Fund, and as a key individual in the development of the Phelps Stokes Fund and the Robert A. Moton Memorial Institute. Dr. Patterson developed a model of cooperative fund raising in higher education that enabled financially deprived private black colleges to survive and serve the youth of the segregated North and South. He started schools of veterinary medicine, engineering, commercial and military aviation, and commercial food preparation at Tuskegee Institute and developed a plan by which the aid that the school could offer poor students was leveraged to help both students and the growing school. Appended are several documents relating to his career: "Little-Known Facts about F. D. Patterson" (J. R. Otis); "The Military and Civilian Pilot Training of Negroes at Tuskegee, 1939-45" (G. L. Washington); "Recollections of the United Negro College Fund" (Albert Dent); "Recollections of the United Negro College Fund" (Betty Stebman); "The College Endowment Funding Plan" (Luther F. Foster); "Tribute to F. D. Patterson" (Hollis Price). (LPT)