Shaping History

This book chronicles the creation, evolution, and multifaceted impact of the University of Alabama HuntsvilleFoundation (UAHF). It traces the growth of the city of Huntsville and the area surrounding it as an internationally acclaimed center for research and development in science, engineering, and technology.

The author describes the concurrent evolution of The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) as the pre-eminent academic center in Alabama for research in engineering, physical science,environmental science, and computational science. He recounts theseminal contributions that the UAH Foundation, and the outstanding men and women who have constituted its members, has made in helping to make some very good things to happen in Huntsville,Alabama.

The UAHF is a rarity among university-related foundations in that the UAHF existed even before the university it now serves was created. The books chapters detail how Huntsville leaders came together to form the predecessor of the UAHF as a landholding operation supporting the orderly development of Cummings Research Park, of which UAH occupies the easternmost extremity.

Later chapters describe how the UAHF gradually took on greater and greater responsibility for the support of UAH itself, becoming, ultimately, UAH's independent, university-related foundation.