cbleck@miningjournal.net
MARQUETTE Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Monday announced appointments to the Northern Michigan University Board of Trustees and the Michigan Tech University Board of Trustees as well as the Eastern Michigan University Board of Regents and the boards of trustees of Ferris State, Grand Valley State and Western Michigan universities.
Named to the NMU Board of Trustees was Gregory J. Seppanen of Marquette, a retired teacher who taught U.S. history, government, world history and economics in the Marquette Area Public Schools for 24 years. Seppanen has also served as a Marquette County commissioner, supervisor of Chocolay Township and as a member of the U.S. Army Presidential Honor Guard. He remains an active member of both the Marquette County Planning Commission and the Central U.P. Planning and Development Regional Commission.
Now that we know, again, the outcome of this year’s presidential race, please give me a few moments today to catch up on some things I’ve been meaning to tell you about.
The first is a sad one, especially for those who were around the Texas Capitol and its then in-house, just-outside-the-House press room from 1960 to 1986. Lee Jones, my friend and former colleague at The Associated Press Capitol Bureau, passed away on Dec. 7 at age 82.
Though he left the news biz many years ago, Jones is just what the profession and its consumers need right now.
An award-winning, journalist’s journalist, he reported the news straight down the middle. No way you could divine Jones’ politics from what he wrote during his Capitol stints at the AP (1960-1981, with two years off for Army service) and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (1981-1986).