George Weeks, member of the Clarke Historical Library Board
of Governors from 1993 to 2002, died Friday, November 30, in Traverse City. A
walking authority on Michigan government and politics, Weeks began his career
as a political reporter in 1954, covering state government for United Press
International. He would eventually become UPI’s Lansing Bureau Chief. When
William Milliken became governor Weeks first became Milliken’s press secretary,
and later his chief of staff. At the end of the Milliken administration, Weeks
resumed his career as a journalist, becoming a columnist for the Detroit News until he retired in 2006.
Both as a journalist and while working in the Milliken
administration, Weeks had a reputation of being thorough, fair, and honest. He also loved Michigan history. Weeks is
remembered for his book, Stewards of the
State: The Governors of Michigan, which one source considered, “one of the
all-time great resources in Michigan government and politics.”
Weeks, however, was responsible for a bit more gubernatorial
history than that book. In the 1920s, the Michigan Historical Commission had
published a four-volume set documenting the official messages of Michigan’s
governors. The fiscal crisis that gripped Michigan and the nation led the Historical
Commission to end the series, something George thoroughly regretted.
In the early 1990s, CMU’s President Leonard Plachta struck
upon the idea of CMU renewing this series, and suggested that the Clarke
Historical Library serve as the home for the project. George championed the
idea. The result are volumes five through ten of the Messages of the Governors of Michigan. The first of these five
volumes was published in 2003 and began with Governor-elect Fred Green’s 1926
victory speech. The final entry of volume ten, dated August 23, 2002,
documented Governor John Engler’s remarks to the Republication Party’s State
Convention.
George Weeks was a good man, a good historian, and, when he
was in town for the Clarke Board meetings, he almost always had a few good
stories to tell about the goings on in Lansing. I will miss him.
For a more complete obituary, please read the story about
his death published in the Detroit News
and posted at https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/12/03/george-weeks-political-columnist-michigan-obituary/2191530002/
.