Charles A. Baird Missouri from 1921 until at least 1937, also acting as the President of the Board for several years. In his later years, Baird became a benefactor of the University of Michigan. His most prominent gift was the Charles Baird Carillon, a carillon consisting of 53 bells that was the third heaviest in the world in 1936. The carillon was purchased with a $70,000 gift from Baird. When Baird first offered the carillon to the university, the Burton Memorial Tower had not been built. The school initially set aside $35,000 to house the carillon in the tower of the Michigan Union.
A Note to a Certain Old Friend he purposely omitted from the story. “I think I analyzed it all in "A Fool's Life," except for a social factor, namely the shadow of feudalism cast over my life" Akutagawa then writes his thought process on how he came to decide on his manner of his death. He does this in a straightforward calculated fashion. He states that he does not believe, unlike “the Westerners”, that suicide is a sin. He decides to commit the act in the least painful way possible and researches each manner of death to find the best way. He dismissed a variety of ways