A passion for education, opposition to slavery, and yearning for a moral life led Josiah B. Grinnell and his band of like-minded New Englanders to establish a town and a college on the Iowa prairie in 1854. Over the years, a remarkable number of dreamers and doers from all walks of life have emerged from Grinnell, including pioneer aviator Billy Robinson; Harry Hopkins, advisor to Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt; and Robert Noyce, cofounder of Intel Corporation. Today, Grinnell is a distinctive blend of urban and rural culture that has been marked by the idealism of its beginnings, molded by the...