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From: NFB-NEWSLINE Online <publications@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: October 18, 2019 at 7:55:30 PM CDT
To: Fred Olver <fredolver@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Article from Detroit Free Press News Section 2019 10 18
Former Michigan Governor William Milliken dies at 97 Paul Egan , Detroit
Free Press William Milliken, who was Michigan's longest-serving governor and
a champion for Detroit, the environment, and a far more moderate Republican
Party, died Friday. He was 97. Milliken, who was governor from 1969 to? 1983,
was a World War II air combat veteran, a retailer, state senator, and
lieutenant governor (to George Romney), all before becoming Michigan's 44th
governor. Milliken died at 5:30 p.m. Friday in the Traverse City home he
built himself, 60 years ago, said Jack Lessenberry, a spokesman for the
family. He had been under hospice care. "He was one of the nicest men you
will ever meet," said Bill Rustem, who was a 20-year-old MSU student when he
became a Milliken intern and went on to become a spokesman, speech writer and
policy adviser to the former governor. "It was an age of civility when
compromise was not a bad word, and when you listened, instead of shouted,"
Rustem said. "He'll be remembered both in Michigan and across the country as
one of the people who helped pull the nation into a new era of environmental
responsibility. Barring a change to the state constitution, which since the
1990s limits governors to two four-year terms, Milliken's record 14 years as
governor of Michigan will never be surpassed. He was also the oldest
ex-governor in state history, surpassing the record of Alpheus Finch, who
served briefly as governor before the Civil War and died much later at age
91. After leaving office, he rejected the rightward turn of the GOP and
expressed regret at the bitterness and divisiveness of public life. "Today,
politics is very mean and nasty. It just doesn't serve the public as well as
it should," he said in 2014. During his years in office, Milliken "shunned
the extremes and sought to govern from the center," wrote Michigan
environmentalist Dave Dempsey in his 2006 biography, "William Milliken:
Michigan's Passionate Moderate. He was known as a champion of Detroit and the
state's environment, working closely with the late former Detroit Mayor
Coleman Young, and pushing for Michigan's bottle deposit law, among other
initiatives. He made Michigan the first state to ban PCBs (polychlorinated
biphenyls), which were widely used in electrical transformers and linked to
cancer, and DDT, a pesticide harmful to wildlife and humans. Gov. Gretchen
Whitmer praised Milliken? as "a true statesman who led our state with
integrity and honor," and a man with "a unique ability to bring people from
both sides of the aisle together for the betterment of Michigan. Milliken
grew up in Traverse City, where his family owned Milliken's department
stores, which had three stores in the region but no longer exists.? He ran
the family business after graduating from Yale University. During World War
II, Milliken? flew 50 combat missions and survived two crash landings. He?
was awarded a Purple Heart. Once an active runner, Milliken remained an
active walker around Traverse City after a bad back caused him to slow his
pace, when he was in his 90s. Milliken is survived by his son, William? Jr.
Milliken's wife,? Helen, died of ovarian cancer in 2012, at age 89. His
daughter Elaine died of cancer in 1993. More: Grand Traverse GOP disowns
ex-Gov. Milliken over his Clinton support More: Milliken throws support
behind regional transit More: Former Michigan Republican Gov. Milliken
endorses Clinton over Trump Milliken was? a third-generation politician,
serving as a state senator like his father and grandfather. Romney was tapped
by Richard Nixon to join his administration as Housing and Urban Development
director, and Milliken ascended to the governor's job. He was elected three
times. Under the current term-limit system, his record years in office won't
be topped. Milliken became governor in 1969, less than two years after the
Detroit riot, believing the success of Michigan and Detroit? was intertwined.
Milliken had a close working relationship with Young, the Democratic and
bombastic former mayor of Detroit, as the governor championed statutory state
revenue sharing, which aided Detroit and other cities during tough economic
times in the 1970s. "I trusted him and I liked him," Milliken said of Young.
"I tried hard to do everything I could to be helpful to the city of Detroit
and the mayor. We weren't entirely successful. He said in an interview he
wished they could have done more on issues such as regional transportation
and investment for the riverfront. "When Gov. Milliken decided he wasn't to
going to run again for governor, the first person he called was Mayor Young.
And when Mayor Young decided he was not going to run again, the first person
he called was Gov. Milliken," the late? Bob Berg, press secretary to both men
at different times, said in 2014. "When they shook hands on a deal they knew
they could trust each other to follow through," Berg said. "That's not always
the case in politics these days. Another major issue for Milliken was
protecting? the Great Lakes and Michigan's environment. He pushed through
passage of the nation's most aggressive bottle recycling law Milliken faced
tough times in office with a major General Motors strike, and economic
meltdowns in Michigan amid oil embargoes. After he left office, former
Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca named him to the automaker's board, citing his
ability to work well with various constituencies. Milliken continued to
endorse political candidates in recent years, regardless of their political
stripe, as the Republican Party moved further away from him to the right. In
2016, the? Republican Party in Milliken's home county of Grand Traverse voted
to no longer recognize him as a Republican, after Milliken endorsed Democrat
Hillary Clinton in the presidential race against Republican Donald Trump.
Some of Milliken's other Democratic endorsements over the years include
former Gov. Jennifer Granholm and U.S. Sen. Gary Peters. He also? endorsed
Republicans, including former Gov. Rick Snyder and the late Sen. John McCain
when he ran for president in 2008. Milliken's wife Helen, a leading advocate
for the arts and the environment,? was a political force in her own right. In
1980, she skipped the opening ceremonies of the Republican National
Convention in Detroit - of which Gov. Milliken was a co-host - to attend a
protest march outside the convention decrying the party's decision to remove
pro-Equal Rights Amendment language from its platform. She also was an ardent
supporter of abortion rights, in 1987 describing "all other rights" of a
woman of "limited value" without the right to choose when to bear children.
With notes from? Free Press columnist? Carol Cain,? Free Press staff writer
Kathleen Gray, and former Free Press staff writer Dawson Bell.
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