Only one Michiganian has held the offices of US president and vice president. Gerald R. Ford (Leslie King, Jr., b.Nebraska, 1913), the 38th US president, was elected to the US House as a Republican in 1948 and served continuously until 1973, becoming minority leader in 1965. Upon the resignation of Vice President Spiro T. Agnew in 1973, President Richard M. Nixon appointed Ford to the vice-presidency. When Nixon resigned on 9 August 1974, Ford became president, the first to hold that post without having been elected to high national office. Ford succeeded in restoring much of the public's confidence in the presidency, but his pardoning of Nixon for all crimes he may have committed as president helped cost Ford victory in the presidential election of 1976. Ford subsequently moved his legal residence to California.
Lewis Cass (b.New Hampshire, 1782–1866), who served as governor of Michigan Territory, senator from Michigan, secretary of war and secretary of state, is the only other Michigan resident nominated by a major party for president; he lost the 1848 race as the Democratic candidate. Thomas E. Dewey (1902–72), a native of Owosso, was the Republican presidential nominee in 1944 and 1948, but from his adopted state of New York.
Two Michiganians have served as associate justices of the Supreme Court: Henry B. Brown (b.Massachusetts, 1836–1913), author of the 1896 segregationist decision in Plessy v. Ferguson; and Frank Murphy (1890–1949), who also served as US attorney general, mayor of Detroit, governor of Michigan, and was a notable defender of minority rights during his years on the court. Another justice, Potter Stewart (1915–85), was born in Jackson but appointed to the court from Ohio.
Other Michiganians who have held high federal office include Robert McClelland (b.Pennsylvania, 1807–80), secretary of the interior; Russell A. Alger (b.Ohio, 1836–1907), secretary of war; Edwin Denby (b.Indiana, 1870–1929), secretary of the Navy, who was forced to resign because of the Teapot Dome scandal; Roy D. Chapin (1880–1936), secretary of commerce; Charles E. Wilson (b.Ohio, 1890–1961), and Robert S. McNamara (b.California, 1916), secretaries of defense; George Romney (b.Mexico, 1907–96), secretary of housing and urban development; Donald M. Dickinson (b.New York, 1846–1917) and Arthur E. Summerfield (1899–1972), postmasters general; and W. Michael Blumenthal (b.Germany, 1926), secretary of the treasury.
Zachariah Chandler (b.New Hampshire, 1813–79) served as secretary of the interior but is best remembered as a leader of the Radical Republicans in the US Senate during the Civil War era. Other prominent US senators have included James M. Couzens (b.Canada, 1872–1936), a former Ford executive who became a maverick Republican liberal during the 1920s; Arthur W. Vandenberg (1884–1951), a leading supporter of a bipartisan internationalist foreign policy after World War II; and Philip A. Hart, Jr. (b.Pennsylvania, 1912–76), one of the most influential senators of the 1960s and 1970s. Recent well-known US representatives include John Conyers, Jr. (b.1929), and Martha W. Griffiths (b.Missouri, 1912), a representative for 20 years who served as the state's lieutenant governor from 1983–91.
In addition to Murphy and Romney, important governors have included Stevens T. Mason (b.Virginia, 1811–43), who guided Michigan to statehood; Austin Blair (b.New York, 1818–94), Civil War governor; Hazen S. Pingree (b.Maine, 1840–1901) and Chase S. Osborn (b.Indiana, 1860–1949), reform-minded governors; Alexander Groesbeck (1873–1953); G. Mennen Williams (1911–88); and William G. Milliken (b.1922), governor from 1969 to January 1983. From 1974 to 1994, Detroit's first black mayor, Coleman A. Young (b.Alabama, 1918–97), promoted programs to revive the city's tarnished image.
The most famous figure in the early development of Michigan is Jacques Marquette (b.France, 1637–75). Other famous historical figures include Charles de Langlade (1729–1801), a leader of the Ottawa people and a French-Indian soldier in the French and Indian War and the American Revolution; the Ottawa chieftain Pontiac (1720?–69), leader of an ambitious Indian uprising; and Gabriel Richard (b.France, 1769–1832), an important pioneer in education and the first Catholic priest to serve in Congress. Laura Haviland (b.Canada, 1808–98) was a noted leader in the fight against slavery and for black rights, while Lucinda Hinsdale Stone (b.Vermont, 1814–1900) and Anna Howard Shaw (b.England, 1847–1919) were important in the women's rights movement.
Nobel laureates from Michigan include diplomat Ralph J. Bunche (1904–71), winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950; Glenn T. Seaborg (1912–99), Nobel Prize winner in chemistry in 1951; and Thomas H. Weller (b.1915) and Alfred D. Hershey (1908–97), Nobel Prize winners in physiology or medicine in 1954 and 1969, respectively. Among leading educators, James B. Angell (b.Rhode Island, 1829–1916), president of the University of Michigan, led that school to the forefront among American universities while John A. Hannah (1902–91), longtime president of Michigan State University, successfully strove to expand and diversify its programs. General Motors executive Charles S. Mott (b.New Jersey, 1875–1973) contributed to the growth of continuing education programs through huge grants of money.
In the business world, William C. Durant (b.Massachusetts, 1861–1947), Henry Ford (1863–1947) and Ransom E. Olds (b.Ohio, 1864–1950) are the three most important figures in making Michigan the center of the American auto industry. Ford's grandson, Henry Ford II (1917–87), was the dominant personality in the auto industry from 1945 through 1979. Two brothers, John Harvey Kellogg (1852–1943) and Will K. Kellogg (1860–1951), helped make Battle Creek the center of the breakfast-food industry. William E. Upjohn (1850–1932) and Herbert H. Dow (b.Canada, 1866–1930) founded major pharmaceutical and chemical companies that bear their names, James E. Scripps (b.England, 1835–1906), founder of the Detroit News, was a major innovator in the newspaper business. Pioneer aviator Charles A. Lindbergh (1902–74) was born in Detroit.
Among prominent labor leaders in Michigan were Walter Reuther (b.West Virginia, 1907–70), president of the United Automobile Workers, and his controversial contemporary, James Hoffa (b.Indiana, 1913–1975?), president of the Teamsters Union, whose disappearance and presumed murder remain a mystery.
The best-known literary figures who were either native or adopted Michiganians include Edgar Guest (b.England, 1881–1959), writer of enormously popular sentimental verses; Ring Lardner (1885–1933), master of the short story; Edna Ferber (1885–1968), best-selling novelist; Paul de Kruif (1890–1971), popular writer on scientific topics; Steward Edward White (1873–1946), writer of adventure tales; Howard Mumford Jones (1892–1980), critic and scholar; and Bruce Catton (1899–1978), Civil War historian.
Other prominent Michiganians past and present include Frederick Stuart Church (1842–1924), painter; Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858–1954), horticulturist and botanist; Albert Kahn (b.Germany, 1869–1942), noted architect and innovator in factory design; and (Gottlieb) Eliel Saarinen (b.Finland, 1873–1950), architect and creator of the Cranbrook School of Art, and his son Eero (1910–61), designer of the General Motors Technical Center in Warren and many distinctive structures throughout the US. Malcolm X (Malcolm Little, b.Nebraska, 1925–65) developed his black separatist beliefs while living in Lansing.
Popular entertainers born in Michigan include Danny Thomas (Amos Jacobs, 1914–91), David Wayne (1914-91), Betty Hutton (b.1921), Ed McMahon (b.1923), Julie Harris (b.1925), Ellen Burstyn (Edna Rae Gilhooley, b.1932), Della Reese (Dellareese Patricia Early, b.1932), William "Smokey" Robinson (b.1940), Diana Ross (b.1944), Bob Seger (b.1945), and Stevie Wonder (Stevland Morris, b.1950), along with film director Francis Ford Coppola (b.1939).
Among sports figures who had notable careers in the state were Fielding H. Yost (b.West Virginia, 1871–1946), University of Michigan football coach; Joe Louis (Joseph Louis Barrow, b.Alabama, 1914-81), heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949; "Sugar Ray" Robinson (1921-89), who held at various times the welterweight and middleweight boxing titles; and baseball Hall of Famers Al Kaline (b.Maryland, 1934) and Tyrus Raymond ("Ty") Cobb (b.Georgia, 1886–1961), who won 12 batting titles, were Detroit Tigers stars. Earvin "Magic" Johnson (b.1959), who broke Oscar Robertson's record for most assists, was born in Lansing, Michigan.