In 1964, a small group of young faculty, some from Ohio State and some from Miami University, were recruited to come help establish a new branch campus for their respective schools. Known simply at the time as the “Dayton Campus Project”, each school entered into a joint venture to establish a new branch campus in Dayton, that ultimately was to become a new state university. This was an exciting opportunity for the young faculty, to help develop a new university in a quickly growing metropolitan area. It was also a tremendous leap of faith, to commit their futures to a new, yet-to-be-built university, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. We are pleased to honor these 54 members of the founding faculty of Wright State, and those that followed in the early formative years of the university. Many of their memories have been captured in the Wright State Retiree’s Association’s Oral History Project. In the coming weeks we will highlight many of these individuals and their stories as captured in the project. In our first post we are spotlighting Dr. Gary Barlow, Professor Emeritus from the Department of Teacher Education in the College of Education and Human Services. In this clip, Gary reflects on his first visit to the “farmland” that was to become the site of the Dayton Branch Campus: