A case study of the unique City University of New York Bernard Baruch College is presented. The school is unique because for 130 years it charged no tuition to most of its students (and even today is cost-free to many) and because its programs have so closely matched the needs of the city of which it is a part. A description is provided of how the school, which started as a free academy to offer training for the clerks and professionals needed in a growing mercantile city, survived through several stages of development to emerge as an independent college in 1968. Nine chapters are as follows: (1) beginnings: from free academy to school of business, 1847-1930; (2) the thirties and forties: growth and conflict; (3) war and postwar: "downtown city," 1940-1955; (4) troubled years for the Baruch School, 1955-1962; (5) a college is born, 1962-1968 (6) first years and a short-term president, 1968-1970; (7) Clyde Wingfield arrives, 1971-1976; (8) the second decade: Cinderella years; and (9) the Segall team in high gear, 1977-1987. (SM)