By Our Bootstraps is chronicle of memories of a boy from northern Arkansas who had never lived in a city or even imagined any other career choice other than military service. His parents were farm laborers who married during the Depression and struggled to raise a family of seven. Many of his stories center around his younger brother Larry, whose path eventually diverged from Bill's to return again after retirement, when the brothers reunited in their beloved state of Arkansas to compare notes on life. Bill's poetry enhances the story, deepening the message. For Bill, the challenges of measuring up to rigorous academic requirements, as well as cultural clashes with fellow students from the North in the turbulent '60s, a time of political intrigue and assassinations, when blacks were struggling to integrate into a white-dominated society, led to lessons that were more than academic. He honors Arkansas College as he relates how the microcosm of this little struggling Presbyterian institution helped to shape the lives of lifelong friends who built families and made a difference in their communities.