Before joining the Rhode Island College of Agricultural and Mechanical Arts, President Kenyon Butterfield had been an Instructor in Rural Sociology at the University of Michigan. He also had served as superintendent to the Michigan Farmers’ Institute and as field agent for the Michigan Agricultural College, and earlier was editor to the Michigan Grange Visitor. President Butterfield had received a B.S. from Michigan Agricultural College and an A.M. degree from the University of Michigan.