The passing of U-M President Emeritus James Duderstadt is an inestimable loss to the University of Michigan, and I extend my deepest sympathies to his wife Anne and their family during this time of mourning and memory. 

Dr. Duderstadt was a visionary, but even more, a trained engineer with the inspiration and energy to shape those visions into realities for the transformation and elevation of this university. 

The Media Union on North Campus – which was subsequently renamed the James and Anne Duderstadt Center – stands as lasting testimony to his exceptional vision and abilities. Constructed when information was just beginning to go digital, the Center was designed as a fully collaborative space, where students and faculty could cross disciplinary boundaries and learn and grow and create. As he said at the dedication in June 1996, “It is designed to create a new kind of university that breaks the constraints of academic disciplines, along with the constraints of space and time.” 

Dr. Duderstadt’s leadership was marked by vision and signal change in many other ways, from making U-M a leader in building a multicultural community and strengthening our commitment to gender equality to directing an effort to build, renovate and update all our campus buildings to reimagining U-M as a leader in lifelong learning. 

Dr. Duderstadt leaves behind a profound and lasting legacy, and we will always be grateful for his vision, his commitment and his transformative impact on the University of Michigan.