On March 29, 2013, a giant snowball created by Michigan Technological University students, with a circumference of 32.94 feet and weighing several tons, was certified as the world’s largest snowball by Guinness World Records.
Source Fritz Klug, “2 Michigan colleges are snowiest in the US”, Detroit Free Press, January 25, 2014.
Robert Mahoney was blind and suffering from a bad heart when his doctors said he had to find an easier job than going door to door in Detroit selling items like brooms and brushes. He went into politics and in 1954 was the first blind person elected to the Legislature, a post he held for 18 years.
After he was defeated for re-election in 1972, he served on the State Officers Compensation Commission and then was a lobbyist before he retired.
His was one of the more remarkable stories of legislators, made all the more remarkable because he and his wife, Jennie (who was also blind), raised 10 children and were able to run businesses from their home.
Mr. Mahoney was born in 1921 in Minnesota and his family later relocated to Detroit. He was blind from birth in one eye and then lost sight in his other eye after a skiing accident while he was a student at Holy Redeemer High School in Detroit. He met his wife Jennie at the Michigan School for the Blind. Ms. Mahoney lost much of her sight due to a high fever when she was three years old and then lost the rest when she was 11.
After graduating from the Michigan School for the Blind, Ms. Mahoney was the first blind student admitted to Adrian College. Mr. Mahoney graduated from Detroit Northern High School.
After they married and settled in Detroit, Mr. Mahoney took a job selling objects made by the blind, such as brooms and mops. He had earlier been one of the first persons in Michigan to get the help of a guide dog, named Patsy, and Patsy helped him in following his route.
Always interested in politics, Mr. Mahoney had run for Detroit Democratic precinct delegate but lost his first race. When his doctor encouraged him to seek a less stressful job, Mr. Mahoney ran again for precinct delegate and won. He said later that his days walking a sales route helped build his name recognition.
In 1954 he was first elected to the House. Toward the end of his tenure, Mr. Mahoney was chair of the House Policy Committee.
He probably was best known for sponsoring legislation that required young people getting hunting licenses to take hunter safety classes. Mr. Mahoney had a special interest in hunter safety issues. To emphasize the point, he went out and was able to buy a hunting license even though he was blind.
Mr. Mahoney got caught up in the racial tensions of the late 1960s and early 1970s, which ended his legislative career. He was a supporter of open housing and school busing. He had generally won his primaries easily, but in 1972 his district was changed and he lost his primary in a landslide to Thaddeus Stopszynski, a more conservative Democrat.
After he left the Legislature, Mr. Mahoney served on the SOCC and then became a lobbyist.
While he had been in Lansing, Ms. Mahoney operated a business out of their Detroit home.
In the 1990s he published an autobiography, “Living Out Of Sight.” Both the Mahoneys were strict Catholics, and Mr. Mahoney’s opposition to abortion led him eventually to switch parties. While he was in the Legislature, he would join other Catholic lawmakers for daily mass.
In an interview 20 years ago in The Michigan Catholic, Mr. Mahoney said, “Life is hard. People today want to think that everything can be easy and you don’t have to struggle or fight or work for anything. But half the joy in life is making some success out of it.”
Mahoney died on March 29, 2017.
For the full article, see “Robert Mahoney, 95, First Blind Person Elected To Legislature, Dies“, MIRS, March 31, 2017.
Paul Egan, “Robert Mahoney, Michigan’s first blind state lawmaker, dead at 95“, Detroit Free Press, March 31, 2017.
February 1, 2018:
House Resolution No. 241.
A resolution of tribute offered as a memorial for Robert D. Mahoney, former member of the House of Representatives.
Whereas, The members of this legislative body were saddened to learn of the passing of former Representative Robert Mahoney. He was both a statesman and a self-starter, and his noteworthy contributions for the disabled and all residents of this state will be long remembered; and
Whereas, Born in Duluth, Minnesota, Robert Mahoney attended Detroit’s Northern High School. He and his wife, Jennie, settled in Detroit after they married to raise a family of ten children. Blind since the age of fifteen, he worked as a door‑to‑door salesman for twelve years to support his growing family. Advised to find a new profession due to health issues and at the urging of a friend, he successfully ran for Democratic precinct delegate. The Mahoneys also established the still-operating Michigan Notary Business, selling notary supplies by mail; and
Whereas, In 1954, Robert Mahoney was elected to represent northeast Detroit in the Michigan House of Representatives. A lifelong Catholic, Representative Mahoney strongly believed that God opened a new window with his venture into politics. As Michigan’s first blind legislator, Representative Mahoney introduced legislation requiring hunter safety classes for young hunters, successfully purchasing a hunting license himself to show the need for stricter regulations. Representative Mahoney also sponsored legislation to provide state identification for blind people who did not hold a driver’s license and to require that vending stands in state-owned buildings be run a by blind proprietors. He secured funding for WKAR radio to offer a sub-channel for the “Talking Book” program to serve the blind. During his tenure, Representative Mahoney chaired several committees including Aid to the Handicapped, Social Aid and Welfare, Social Services and Corrections, and House Policy. He was also a member of the Supplies and Expenditures, Education, Insurance, Public Safety, and Taxation committees; and
Whereas, After leaving the Legislature in 1972, Representative Mahoney was appointed as a Wayne County Commissioner where he served for three years and later he lobbied for the Michigan Hospital Association. He noted that computers made life easier for the blind and, using a special Braille computer, he would surf the web, read news, and send e-mails. In 1995, he self-published a book about his life titled “Living Out of Sight”; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives, That we offer this expression of our highest tribute to honor the memory of Robert D. Mahoney, a member of this legislative body from 1955 to 1972; and be it further
Resolved, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to the Mahoney family as evidence of our lasting esteem for his memory.
The question being on the adoption of the resolution,
The resolution was adopted by unanimous standing vote.
The War of 1812 left Detroit impoverished. When word reached Michigan about the Treaty of Ghent, which ended America’s second war with Great Britain, Detroiters gathered at Ben Woodworth’s Hotel and held what is called a Pacification Ball to celebrate the war’s formal end.
Noe: One source says March 29th; others say March 30th. Maybe the ball began on March 29th and went on to the wee hours of the morning.
Source : Michigan is Amazing
The War of 1812 / a production of WNED-TV, Buffalo/Toronto and Florentine Films/Hott Productions, Inc., in association with WETA Washington, D.C. ; a film by Lawrence Hott and Diane Garey ; written by Ken Chowder. [United States] : PBS Distribution, 2011. 1 DVD videodisc (approximately 120 min.) : sound, color ; 4 3/4 in. Kline Digital & Multimedia Center (4 West) E354 .W37 2011 VideoDVD (Also available as part of ROVI Movie Collection) : For two and a half years, Americans fought Against the British, Canadian colonists, and native nations. The War of 1812 is worth remembering–a struggle that threatened the existence of Canada, then divided the United States so deeply that the nation almost broke apart. Some of its battles and heroes became legendary, yet its blunders and cowards were just as prominent. With re-enactments, evocative animation and the incisive commentary of key experts, this program presents the conflict that forged the destiny of a continent.
Michigan’s first kidney transplant took place at the University of Michigan, when 15-year old Janice Ottenbacher received an organ from her identical twin sister Joan on March 30, 1964.
Janice was dying, her kidneys failing. Joan agreed to donate a kidney. And as their parents waited anxiously, the twins successfully survived the first kidney transplant done in Michigan.
Fifty years later, both are healthy and thriving. They both became nurses, got married, had children and grandchildren.
Since the twins’ transplant in 1964, the University of Michigan Transplant Center has done more than 10,026 organ transplants, of which 1,065 were for pediatric patients. Only about a dozen centers nationwide have done that many procedures.
U-M has one of the oldest and largest transplantation programs in the country and U-M surgeons perform transplants of hearts, lungs, pancreases, livers, kidneys, and corneas. About 400 to 450 transplants are done at U-M annually, mostly kidney transplants followed by liver, heart, lung and pancreas.
More information about becoming an organ, tissue, bone marrow or blood donor is available at www.wolverinesforlife.org.
Sources :
Michigan History, March/April 2015
“First transplant recipients to help celebrate U-M Transplant Center’s 50th anniversary” University of Michigan Medical Center News Release, May 27, 2014.
On March 30, 1977, the U.S. Air Force announced that it would close Kincheloe Air Force base near Sault Ste. Marie and transfer military personnel and equipment to other bases.
Kincheloe had been the financial lifeline to Chippewa, Mackinac and Luce counties in the eastern Upper Peninsula, providing an annual payroll of some $36 million in the economically depressed region.
Gov. Bill Milliken urged President Jimmy Carter to reverse the decisions, saying it would have a devastating effect on the entire state.
The history of Kincheloe dates to 1941. With war raging in Europe and threats arising in the Pacific, the federal government rushed to build Kinross AFB to protect the Soo Locks, which allow shipping to traverse the St. Mary’s River connecting Lake Superior and Lake Huron.
There was some talk of closing the base after World War II, but Cold War tensions and the Korean War kept it alive. In 1956, Kinross–named for the township in which it is located–made the Pentagon list for base closings. The community organized and effectively fought the closing. (The base’s name was changed in 1959 to honor Capt. Iven C. Kincheloe, a Michigan test pilot who died in a training flight over the California desert.)
During Vietnam, Kincheloe housed B-52s and subsequently become part of the SAC defense system, largely serving as a refueling station. The Pentagon announced on March 10, 1976, that Kincheloe would be closed.
Many residents simply did not believe it. “We were not too uneasy,” said Mansfield. “They had cried wolf so many times before.”
But this time the Pentagon was serious. As the reality sank in, the Sault Ste. Marie area first expressed outrage, then panic and finally slipped into a sullen depression.
“People thought this would become a wasteland,” recalled John Campbell, executive director of the Eastern U. P. Regional Planning & Development Commission.
There was good reason for gloom and doom. Scores of businesses near the base–restaurants, gas stations and small stores–immediately closed. Teachers were laid off as students moved away.
It was as though a neutron bomb had hit Kincheloe Air Force Base in 1978. The buildings, desks and equipment were there, but the people were gone–700 civilian workers laid off and 3,200 military personnel transferred.
Fortunately, after the initial cycle of closings and transfer of population, Kincheloe made a comeback. Kincheloe’s revival came about through aggressive local leadership combined with a willingness of the state and federal governments to help financially. Unlike today, it occurred when budget constraints were less pressing.
In fact, the conversion of Kincheloe is as much a result of luck and good timing as it is of hard work and foresighted planning. While the hope had been to develop a solid manufacturing base for Chippewa County, anchored by an airport industrial park, the result is a hub of state prisons surrounded by a few small industries.
There are five correctional facilities now located at the former base, employing 1,200 workers. Seven manufacturers employ about 250 workers, and service businesses employ an additional 350.
Sources:
Susan Watson, “It’s Final, Kincheloe Will Close”, Detroit Free Press, March 31, 1977.
Donald W. Nauss, “Life After Taps Plays at the Base“, Los Angeles Times, March 30, 1993.
On March 30, 1978, a jury was picked in the trial of a suit filed against a Detroit firm by a woman who claims she was fired because she refused to have sex with her boss. Attorneys for Mrs. Maxine Munford said it was the first sex discrimination case of its type to go to trial in the United States.
On her first day of work in 1976, Maxine Munford’s white boss asked her “if she would make love to a white man and if she would slap his face if he made a pass at her.” When she refused his advances, she was fired. .
A month later, she lost the case after a jury of four women and two men found for the company, saying they didn’t find Munford’s testimony credible. Munford happened to be an African American.
“I’m not sorry that I went through with it,” said Maxine Munford, 31, who filed the charges in a lawsuit. “I hope that (despite the loss) it will give other women some incentive . . . and let them know there are certain things that they don’t have to put up with.”
However, due to subsequent publicity, Munford’s charges against her boss would eventually lead to one of the first state laws against sexual harassment, passed in Michigan in 1980.
Carrie N. Baker, “Race, Class, and Sexual Harassment in the 1970s“, Feminist Studies, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Spring, 2004), pp. 7-27
Battle Creek Enquirer, April 21, 1978
Accused of marketing its sugar-coated serials to children by the Federal Trade Commission, the Kellogg Company defended itself by stating it contained no more sugar that other products such as fruit-flavored yogurt or apple pie. The ban on advertisements never materialized, but many years later (2007), the company did stop directing advertising to children under 12 for its products Fruit Loops, Cocoa Crispies, and Apple Jacks.
Source : Michigan Every Day
On March 30, 1998, the Museum of African American History was officially renamed for its founder, Dr. Charles H. Wright.
Source : Detroit Historical Society Facebook page.
Visit the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History website.
And Still We Rise, a brief film on what it means to be African American by the Wright Museum of African American History
James Del Rio, who was abandoned as a new-born infant and found in a trash can, who marched in Detroit next to Martin Luther King Jr., who served in the Michigan House and as a Detroit Recorders Judge until he was removed by the Supreme Court, has died. He was 94 and living in California.
Mr. De Rio actually died on March 30, but his death was only announced Thursday.
He was one of the most colorful and controversial politicians in Michigan in the 1960s and 1970s, and was unapologetic about how he lived and worked in his life.
Possibly the best description of Mr. Del Rio came from the man himself, printed on a blog he maintained.
“I have,” he wrote, “always lived iconoclastically, eaten too much or not at all, slept around the clock or missed two nights or days sleep, having slept no more than four hours a night for more than 25 years. Worked too hard and too long, or slobbed for a time in utter laziness. I’ve lifted, pulled, chopped, climbed my way, made love constantly with joy and taken my hangovers as a consequence, not as a punishment.”
He also said, “I have lived as a Jew, a black man, a white man and finally a human being.”
Mr. Del Rio was born in January 1924 in Detroit. He never knew his parents as he was abandoned and discovered by a man in a garbage can. Taken to Detroit’s Harper hospital, he was estimated to be about two hours old when found, and given the name William Harper Doe for birth records.
More than a year later he was adopted by James and Mary Cohen – Mr. Cohen was Jewish and Ms. Cohen was black — and given the name James Cohen Jr.
His name was changed to Del Rio when he and his family moved to Dearborn.
Early in his political career he generated some controversy when he was accused of for a while saying he was Hispanic.
Mr. Del Rio went into real estate in 1953, becoming a successful sales agent. He would say later that he sold $2 million worth of properties in his first year alone. Given property values in the early 1950s, $2 million in sales would represent many dozens of properties sold.
He became part of the contentious civil rights movement in Detroit, and played a role in the effort to bring Mr. King to the city. In a now iconic photograph of Mr. King marching down Woodward Avenue in June 1963, Mr. Del Rio can be seen slipping in to Mr. King’s right side. In the same photo, UAW President Walter Reuther is seen at the right, the Rev. C. L. Franklin – another leading Detroit rights activist and father of the legendary Aretha Franklin – is also in the first row and just behind in the second row is then Detroit Mayor Jerome Cavanagh. At the Cobo Hall rally after the March, Mr. King first delivered his historic “I Have A Dream” speech.
Mr. Del Rio won election to the Michigan House in a special election in 1965. While in the House he served on the Judiciary Committee and was very involved in moving civil rights legislation. He had good relations with then-Governor George Romney who was also very passionate about civil rights.
Dennis Cawthorne, who served with Mr. Del Rio in the House, said he was very bright and articulate but could also be very caustic and intimidating.
However, possibly the incident most remember about Mr. Del Rio in the Legislature is that a pistol he was carrying fell out of his jacket and onto the House floor. “It caused a great sensation at the time and added to his reputation as mercurial,” Mr. Cawthorne said.
During the 1967 unrest in Detroit, Mr. Del Rio was arrested, with police claiming he attempted to interfere in the arrest of a suspected looter.
Mr. Del Rio was elected as a Detroit Recorders Judge in 1972. A gun figured in the incident most noted in his judicial career. During a case an attorney pulled out a pistol and put it to his head. Mr. Del Rio then said the attorney, Gerald Dent, who was well-known in the legal community, pointed the gun at him and then at the witness testifying. Mr. Dent was shot dead by police officers in the court. It later came out that Mr. Dent had attempted suicide the day before.
In 1977, Mr. Del Rio was removed from the bench by the Supreme Court for inappropriate behavior, which included boasting about his sexual prowess, calling various people and institutions racist and being rude.
The great Detroit author Elmore Leonard never actually acknowledged that Mr. Del Rio’s case was the genesis of a leading character in his novel “City Primeval,” but the opening scenes read much like the findings against Mr. Del Rio.
Mr. Del Rio remained active in the area and in the 1990s returned to his real estate roots to help set up a mortgage company.
In 2000, he mounted a bid to return to the House, but finished third in the Democratic primary for the old 4th House District.
He had been living in southern California but returned to Detroit for visits periodically. He remained politically interested and was always good for a comment. He called President Donald Trump a “jive turkey” in one of his most recent comments.
MIRS News Service, April 12, 2018.
With Covid-19 spreading in Michigan, ad agency Doner, headquartered in Detroit since the 1930s, chose to send a message of strength and resilience to its city in the form of its new video, ‘When the Motor Stops’.
The spot, shot in black and white, features typically populated portions of Detroit cleared out. Messages of solidarity appear on downtown marquees, including affirmations such as “We love you, Detroit” and “We will get through this together.” A voiceover acknowledges how unnatural the emptiness of the streets feels, especially for “the city on four wheels.” The entirety of the spot serves as a nod to Detroit’s heritage, with referencing including: “Even Henry [Ford] himself would have put it in park.” The video characterizes collective isolation as a sign of togetherness, closing out with the poignant message that “Here, we don’t stop in the name of fear. We stop in the name of love” before fading to text that says “Stay safe, Detroit.”
Doner shot and produced this film over the weekend – safely. The agency’s in-house director shot solo, with the editor cutting and finished the film remotely from home – the same way the rest of Doner’s studio is working. The voice talent recorded from her closet.
Credits
Agency: Doner
Director: Zeke Anders
Creative Team: Michael Stelmaszek, Zeke Anders, Alex Demuth
(Strategy: Alex Demuth)
Music: Jon Moshier, Julian Whettlin
(VO: Olivia Hill)
(Script: Michael Stelmaszek)
Production: Jennie Hochthanner, Tony Del Bel
Musician: Low Lumens
Maureen Feighan, “A local ad agency’s ode to Detroit resilience goes viral“, Detroit News, April 3, 2020.
Julie Hinds, “‘A flat-out masterpiece’: Detroit ad on COVID-19 crisis inspires rest of nation“, Detroit Free Press, May 28, 2020.