Portal:Michigan/Selected biography

Selected biography 1

Portal:Michigan/Selected biography/1

John Clough Holmes (September 25, 1809 - December 16, 1887) was responsible for the establishment of Michigan State University. As the co-founder of the Michigan State Agricultural Society, John Clough Holmes spearheaded the movement to build an agriculture college in Michigan. Holmes Hall, the home of the Lyman Briggs College, is named in his honor. After moving to Detroit at age 26, Holmes married into a merchant family. He later got involved in both the Detroit Horticultural Society and the Board of Education. In 1849, his background in horticulture and education later led him to co-found the Michigan State Agricultural Society, a group dedicated to establishing a state-funded agriculture college in Michigan. Holmes spent the next six years drafting legislation and gaining support for his cause, and in 1855, the Michigan state governor signed a bill establishing the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan.

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Portal:Michigan/Selected biography/2 Frederick Lee "Ted" Petoskey (born January 5, 1911 in St. Charles, Michigan, died November 30, 1996 in Elgin, South Carolina) was a three-sport athlete at the University of Michigan, a Major League Baseball player, a collegiate coach in three sports and an athletic director. At the University of Michigan, Petoskey received eight varsity letters in three sports. In American football, he was a two-time All-American end for the undefeated Michigan Wolverines football teams that won back-to-back college football National Championships in 1932 and 1933. He was also a guard and captain of Michigan's basketball team in the 1933–34 season. As a baseball player in 1934, Petoskey led the Big Ten Conference with a .452 batting average. Petoskey played parts of the 1934 and 1935 Major League Baseball seasons as an outfielder for the Cincinnati Reds and played minor league baseball until 1944.

Selected biography 3

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Kristen Anne Bell (born July 18, 1980) is an American actress. She has received a Satellite Award and Saturn Award, and has been nominated for a Television Critics Association Award and Teen Choice Award. Though her first film role was an uncredited appearance in Polish Wedding, Bell previously acted in stage and musical productions. In 2001, she made her Broadway debut as Becky Thatcher in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. After re-locating to Los Angeles, Bell landed various television guest appearances and small film parts, before she gained notability for starring as the title role on the critically acclaimed television show Veronica Mars from September 2004 to May 2007. During her time on Veronica Mars, Bell reprised her role as Mary Lane in the film version of Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical, a stage production she had taken part in. She also portrayed the lead role in Pulse, a remake of a J-Horror film. In 2007, she joined the cast of Heroes playing the character Elle Bishop, and Gossip Girl as the titular narrator. Additionally, she played the title character in the hit comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Selected biography 4

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Ralph W. Aigler (1885–May 24, 1964) was an American law professor at the University of Michigan from 1910–1954, the University's faculty representative to the Big Ten Conference from 1917–1955, and chairman of Michigan's Faculty Board in Control of Athletics from 1917–1942. Aigler was a renowned expert on real property law and one of the advisors to the American Law Institute in the drafting of the Restatement of the Law of Property. He is best known, however, for his contributions to the athletics programs at the University of Michigan. Aigler's contributions included leading Michigan back into the Big Ten Conference, leading the effort to construct Michigan Stadium, Yost Fieldhouse and other facilities, negotiating the Big Ten's exclusive contract with the Rose Bowl starting in 1946, hiring Fritz Crisler as football coach and athletic director, and acting as a spokesman for the University and Big Ten for many years on NCAA rules and eligibility issues. He was inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in 1982.

Selected biography 5

Portal:Michigan/Selected biography/5

James Jesse Strang (March 21, 1813 – July 9, 1856) was one of three major contenders for leadership of the Latter Day Saint movement during the 1844 Succession Crisis. Rejected by the principal body of Mormons in Nauvoo, Illinois, he became the founder and prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, claiming it to be the sole legitimate continuation of the Church of Christ founded in 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr.. In this capacity, he served as the crowned "king" of an ecclesiastical monarchy that existed for six years within the U.S. state of Michigan. Building an organization that eventually rivaled Brigham Young's, Strang gained nearly 12,000 adherents prior to his murder in 1856, which brought down his Beaver Island kingdom and all but extinguished his sect. In contrast to Joseph Smith, who had served as "president" of his church, Strang taught that Smith's prophetic office embodied an overtly royal attribute, by which its occupant was to be not only the spiritual leader of his people, but their temporal king as well.

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Paul Gordon Goebel (born May 28, 1901 in Grand Rapids, Michigan – January 26, 1988 in Grand Rapids, Michigan) was an American football end who played for the University of Michigan Wolverines from 1920-1922. He was an All-American in 1921 and was the team’s captain in 1922. He played professional football from 1923-1926 with the Columbus Tigers, Chicago Bears, and New York Yankees. He was named to the NFL All-Pro team in 1923 and 1924. After his football career ended, he operated a sporting good store in Grand Rapids. He officiated football games for the Big Ten Conference for 16 years and also served in the U.S. Navy on an aircraft carrier in World War II. He was active in Republican Party politics in Grand Rapids, and was one of the organizers of a reform movement to oust the city’s political boss, Frank McKay. As an anti-McKay reform candidate, Goebel was three times elected mayor of Grand Rapids, Michigan in the 1950s. He was later elected to the University of Michigan Board of Regents, where he served from 1962-1970.

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Portal:Michigan/Selected biography/7 Willis F. Ward (born circa 1912) is a former track and field athlete and American football player who has been inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in 1981. Ward was the Michigan High School Athlete of the Year, after setting a national prep record in the high jump. At the University of Michigan, he was a collegiate champion in the high jump, the long jump, the 100-yard dash, and the 400-yard dash, and finished second in the voting for the Associated Press Big Ten Athlete of the Year award in 1933. In track and field he was a three-time All-American and eight-time Big Ten champion. In football, Ward was only the second African-American to win a varsity letter for the Michigan Wolverines football team, lettering in 1932, 1933, and 1934. In 1934, a controversy developed when Georgia Tech refused to play if Ward took the field, and university officials opted to keep Ward out of the game. Teammate Gerald R. Ford reportedly threatened to quit the team in response to the university’s decision. After being excluded from the Georgia Tech game, Ward went on to score all 12 of Michigan's points that year outside the Georgia Tech, without another Wolverine even having an extra point or a field goal.

Selected biography 8

Portal:Michigan/Selected biography/8

Thomas Clarkson Trueblood (April 6, 1856 – June 5, 1951) was an American professor of elocution and oratory and the first coach of the University of Michigan golf and debate teams. He was affiliated with the University of Michigan for 67 years from 1884-1951, and was a nationally known writer and speaker on oratory and debate. He founded UM's Department of Elocution and Oratory as well as the campus debate program. He became the subject of national media attention in 1903 when the Chicago Tribune ran an article stating that he was offering a new "course in love making." His golf teams won two NCAA National Championships and five Big Ten Conference championships. He was posthumously inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in 1981. Trueblood was a native of Salem, Indiana. He attended Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana and received an A.M. degree. In 1878, Trueblood and Robert I. Fulton established the Fulton and Trueblood School of Oratory in Kansas City, Missouri, which became "one of the largest and best known institutions of its kind in the United States.

Selected biography 9

Portal:Michigan/Selected biography/9

Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. (July 14, 1913 – December 26, 2006) was the thirty-eighth President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the fortieth Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974. He was the first person appointed to the vice-presidency under the terms of the 25th Amendment, and became President upon Richard Nixon's resignation on August 9, 1974. Ford was the fifth U.S. President never to have been elected to that position, and the only one never to have won a national election at all. He was the longest-lived president in U.S. history, living to age 93. Before ascending to the vice-presidency, Ford served nearly 25 years as Representative from Michigan's 5th congressional district, eight of them as the Republican Minority Leader. As president, Ford signed the Helsinki Accords, marking a move toward détente in the Cold War. Compared with his predecessors, Ford's policies were less directed towards intervention in Vietnamese affairs. Domestically, the economy suffered from inflation and a recession under President Ford.

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Portal:Michigan/Selected biography/10 Tyrone Anthony Wheatley (born January 19, 1972) is a former professional American football player and current assistant coach who played 10 seasons in the National Football League (NFL) and was one of the most successful high school and collegiate athletes in Metropolitan Detroit history. In high school, he was a member of state-champion teams in both track and field and football, and he was named Michigan's track and field athlete of the year and football athlete of the year in the same academic year. He earned All-America track honors in both high school and college. Following his graduation from high school as one of Michigan's best athletes, he attended the University of Michigan on an athletic scholarship and earned first-team All-Big Ten Conference honors on Big Ten Champion football and track teams. At the University of Michigan, Wheatley earned the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year Award during the 1992 football season.

Selected biography 11

Portal:Michigan/Selected biography/11

Hugh Brady (July 29, 1768–April 15, 1851) was an American general from Pennsylvania. He served in the Northwest Indian War under General Anthony Wayne, and during the War of 1812. Following the War of 1812, Brady remained in the military, eventually rising to the rank of major general and taking command of the garrison at Detroit. He also marginally participated in the 1832 Black Hawk War. Hugh Brady died an accidental death in 1851 when he was thrown from a horse-drawn carriage. Brady was born July 29, 1768, one of six sons and four daughters by John and Mary Brady, in Standingstone, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. Brady's father, Captain John Brady, was killed in 1776, during the American Revolution in a battle with Native Americans. In May 1779, the family moved to Brady's maternal grandfather's home in Cumberland County and stayed there until October 1779. After a harsh winter, Brady spent the ensuing few years working the fields in the area with his brothers, often armed in case of conflict with Native Americans.

Selected biography 12

Portal:Michigan/Selected biography/12

William Francis "Frank" Murphy (April 13, 1890 – July 19, 1949) was a politician and jurist from Michigan. He served as First Assistant U.S. District Attorney, Eastern Michigan District (1920–1923), Recorder's Court Judge, Detroit (1923–1930), Mayor of Detroit (1930–1933), the last Governor-General of the Philippines (1933–1935), U.S. High Commissioner of the Philippines (1935–1936), Governor of Michigan (1937–1939), United States Attorney General (1939–1940), and United States Supreme Court Associate Justice (1940–1949). Murphy was born in Harbor Beach to Irish parents, John T. Murphy and Mary Brennan, who raised him as a devout Catholic. He followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a lawyer. He attended the University of Michigan Law School, where he was a member of the senior society Michigamua. He graduated with a BA in 1912 and LLB in 1914. This was a combined literary and law course, a program in which students would first earn a baccalaureate degree in liberal arts and then proceed to the study of law.

Selected biography 13

Portal:Michigan/Selected biography/13

George Wilcken Romney (July 8, 1907 – July 26, 1995) was an American businessman and a politician. He was chairman of American Motors Corporation from 1954 to 1962. He then served as the 43rd governor of Michigan from 1963 to 1969 and then the 3rd United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 1969 to 1973. Romney was a candidate for President in 1968, ultimately losing the Republican nomination to Richard Nixon. He is the father of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, and the husband of former Michigan Senate candidate Lenore Romney. George W. Romney was a kinsman of George Romney (1734-1802), a noted portrait painter in Britain during the last quarter of the 18th century. Romney was born to American parents in a Mormon colony in Mexico. His family moved back to the United States when he was a child.

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Portal:Michigan/Selected biography/14

Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was the American founder of the Ford Motor Company and father of modern assembly lines used in mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry. He was a prolific inventor and was awarded 161 U.S. patents. As owner of the Ford Company he became one of the richest and best-known people in the world. He is credited with "Fordism", that is, the mass production of large numbers of inexpensive automobiles using the assembly line, coupled with high wages for his workers. Ford had a global vision, with consumerism as the key to peace. Ford did not believe in accountants; he amassed one of the world's largest fortunes without ever having his company audited under his administration. Henry Ford's intense commitment to lowering costs resulted in many technical and business innovations, including a franchise system that put a dealership in every city in North America, and in major cities on six continents.

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Portal:Michigan/Selected biography/15 Henry Benjamin "Hank" Greenberg (January 1, 1911, New York, New York – September 4, 1986), nicknamed "Hammerin' Hank," was an American professional baseball player in the 1930s and 1940s. A first baseman primarily for the Detroit Tigers, Greenberg was one of the premier power hitters of his generation. He hit 58 home runs in 1938, equalling Jimmie Foxx's 1932 mark, as the most in one season by any player between 1927--when Babe Ruth set a record of 60--and 1961--when Roger Maris surpassed it. He was a five-time All-Star, was twice named the American League's Most Valuable Player, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1956. Greenberg was also one of the first Jewish superstars in American professional sports. He garnered national attention in 1934 when he refused to play baseball on Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, even though the Tigers were in the middle of a pennant race.

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Portal:Michigan/Selected biography/16 Tony Boles (born (1967-12-11) December 11, 1967 in Thomasville, Georgia) is a former professional American football running back and kick returner who was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League. After starring for the Michigan Wolverines football, where he once led the Big Ten Conference in rushing, he went on to a scandal ridden life. His college football career was ended prematurely due to a knee injury. He has been sentenced to prison multiple times and placed in homes for addicts due to cocaine abuse. Although Boles was born in Thomasville, Georgia and his family settled in Westland, Michigan when he was ten years old, he grew up in a predominately white neighborhood where he was one of only four African-Americans in the entire student body at John Glenn High School, and attended Marshall Junior High School.

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Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known as Slim Shady and his primary stage name Eminem, is an Academy Award-winning American rapper, record producer and actor. Having sold over seventy million albums worldwide, Eminem is one of the highest-selling rappers of all time. Eminem quickly gained popularity in 1999 with his major-label debut album The Slim Shady LP. The following album, The Marshall Mathers LP, became the fastest-selling hip hop album in history, followed by an increasing amount of popularity, critical praise, as well as controversy. While Eminem has won many Grammy Awards, been praised for having "verbal energy", high quality of lyricism and been ranked at number nine on MTV's list of The Greatest MCs of All Time,#13 on the MTV's "22 Greatest Voices in Music" and #82 on Rolling Stone's "The Immortals" he has often been infamous for the controversy surrounding many of these lyrics, including allegations of glorifying homophobia, misogyny, and violence.

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Madonna Louise Ciccone Ritchie (born August 16, 1958), known as Madonna, is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in Bay City, Michigan and raised in Rochester Hills, Michigan, Madonna moved to New York City for a career in modern dance. After performing as member of the pop musical groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her self-titled debut album in 1983, and then produced three consecutive number-one studio albums on the Billboard 200 in the 1980s and four more since year 2000. Madonna is known for her works that explore religious symbolism and sexual themes which also drew criticism from the Vatican in the late 1980s. In 1992, she founded an entertainment company, Maverick, which published a book of photographs (Sex). She also released a studio album (Erotica) and starred in a film (Body of Evidence) with erotic themes. These works generated negative publicity and coincided with a fall in commercial sales in the 1990s. Madonna's career was revived in 1998, when the release of her album Ray of Light garnered critical acclaim.

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Portal:Michigan/Selected biography/19 Donald Patrick "Don" Dufek, Jr. (born April 28, 1954 in Ann Arbor, Michigan) is a former American football player who played safety and special teams for eight seasons with the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League. He had previously played for the Michigan Wolverines football team in Ann Arbor from 1973–1975. He was chosen to serve as team captain for both the Seahawks and Wolverines. At Michigan, he was following in the footsteps of his father Don Dufek, Sr. who had been a Wolverine team Most Valuable Player. As a graduate of Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, Dufek was able to stay close to home while performing as a two-sport star at the University of Michigan where he played for the Michigan Wolverines football and hockey teams. In football, he was a member of back-to-back Big Ten Conference championship teams at Michigan and became an All-American as well as a team captain. Dufek, was sought after as a professional athlete in two sports: Dufek was drafted by teams in the National Hockey League, World Hockey Association and National Football League.

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Portal:Michigan/Selected biography/20 Thomas Wilcher was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I track and field national champion in the indoor 55 m hurdles and a three-time NCAA All-American in track and field for the University of Michigan. Wilcher was also a running back for the Michigan Wolverines football team from 1983–1986. In his redshirt senior year, he was a member of the Big Ten Conference football champion team as well as a 110 m hurdles Big Ten individual champion. In high school, Wilcher was a Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) record-setting hurdler. As an athlete, he is a ten-time MHSAA track and field champion and two-time Michigan High School Track and Cross Country Athlete of the Year award winner. He was also a Junior Olympics champion in the 110 m hurdles. As of 2008, Wilcher is the head coach for the football team and the boys' track & field team at Cass Technical High School in Detroit. As a boys' track coach, he is a three time MHSAA team track and field champion, and his school has also twice been the MHSAA runner up.

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Dominik Hašek (born January 29, 1965) is a professional ice hockey goaltender for the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League. In his 15-season NHL career, he has also played for the Chicago Blackhawks, Buffalo Sabres, and the Ottawa Senators. During his years in Buffalo, he became one of the league's finest goaltenders, earning him the nickname "The Dominator." His strong play has been credited with establishing European goaltenders in a league widely dominated by North Americans. Hašek is considered an unorthodox goaltender, with a distinct style that has labeled him a "flopper." He is best known for his concentration, foot speed, flexibility, and unconventional saves, such as covering the puck with his blocker rather than his trapper. His puckhandling is considered to be his biggest weakness. During the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, he led the Czech national ice hockey team to its first and only Olympic gold medal.

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Eber Brock Ward (December 25, 1811 – January 2, 1875) was an iron and steel manufacturer and shipbuilder. He was known as the "steamship king of the Great Lakes" and as the "first of the iron kings." Ward became Detroit's first millionaire. He was the wealthiest man in the Midwest, in his time, due his steel factories. Ward was into several industries in Michigan and the Midwest. He accumulated timberlands and lands that contained iron ore, copper and silver. He branched into several industries including newspapers, railroads, glass manufacturing, banking, steamships, and insurance companies. He even was one of the promoters of the Soo Locks of which he was one of the first to use, as at first he hauled schooners overland around the Soo Rapids to sail Lake Superior.