Alice Terry was born in Cortez, Nevada, in 1901. She attended schools in Reno, and began a career in office work that culminated in her becoming executive secretary to many presidents or acting presidents of the University of Nevada. Terry's account of her service to President Walter E. Clark, Comptroller Charles Gorman, the College of Agriculture, and other university executives is characteristically modest. When she felt herself to be inadequate in business procedures, she took instruction to remedy any deficiencies. As the university grew, she acquired new responsibilities.

Terry served eight university presidents as secretary or administrative assistant, saw at first hand seven changes in administration, and assisted with some of the university's delicate work in inter-state education even after her retirement in 1964.

Miss Terry has assisted, on a voluntary basis, with the improvement of the university archives, and she helped prepare an index of the oral history manuscripts. Few people in the history of the university have a longer record of service; it is doubtful whether any have a fuller record of unpaid, overtime service.

In some respects, Alice Terry's narrative is an important addendum and corrective to the formal university history. She offers insights on the various presidents and acting presidents with a freshness and directness that the formal historical analysis does not possess. She offers a view of the university's operations from the vantage point of the most sensitive of the educational offices. Past university presidents have not given their memoirs; this document helps fill that lacuna. Terry has things to say about past mistakes that are deserving of future consideration.