Cushman McGiffert, reverend and founding trustee of College of the Atlantic (COA), describes his involvement with COA from the early, formative years, through the present. He describes his first contact with COA, the role of various people in COA's founding, and the process of hiring the first faculty, finding the first trustees, finding the first president, and developing the curriculum and the idea of human ecology. He details early fundraising efforts, and the college's move to secure a campus location and figure out housing for students. He concludes with an assessment of the COA educational model, praising its quality and uniqueness.