By Scott Westerman Our good friend, Hazen Schumacher, passed away on the morning of July 19, 2015 in Ann Arbor. He was 88 years young. Hazen was one of the world’s leading authorities on the first three decades of recorded American Jazz, served on the Ann Arbor School Board at a pivotal time in the district’s history and was a teacher,…

By Scott Westerman The elements that so mix to create the tapestry of words and deeds that reveal our character are the creations of many artists. If we are lucky, there are singular people who come into our lives at just the right moment, guiding our adventures in the direction of excellence. In my life, one of those amazing individuals…

“Let’s get the kids a dog.” I can’t remember which of us said it but there was a lot of discussion about the particulars. Our house in Florida was small back then and the kids were not yet in high school. We had tried our luck with a Brittany Spaniel several years before but drew a hair brained knucklehead, out…

By Scott Westerman If we’re lucky, when we are young we are blessed with a best friend; that person with whom you shared the ups and downs of adolescence, tested the waters of adulthood and had adventures that nobody else but the two of you knew about. For me, Joey Morrison was that person. We met when our parents were…

In every organization there is that one person who you can always count on to get the job done. Someone who isn’t afraid to tell you what you need to hear instead of what he thinks you might want to hear and does it in a calm, professional, empowering way. A person who seems to have no ego, radiates authenticity…

By Scott Westerman In the days before automation, a rite of passage for many a young disk jockey was running the local control board for Paul Harvey News and Comment. My own experience came in 1971 at Ann Arbor’s WPAG. As the agricultural station for southeastern Michigan and northern Ohio, our noon-time Farm and Home Hour was punctuated with Paul…

By Colleen Aldrich Westerman As some of you know, we recently learned that my sweet mom had liver cancer, a metastasis of the breast cancer she beat several years ago. Her time to battle was a short one, only about 2 months. She passed away around 1am on November 22 in Houghton Lake, MI in the same nursing home where…

By Scott Westerman In the days when my dad was an administrator at the Ann Arbor Public Schools, election nights took on a special significance. It was a time when people actually voted “yes” on school bond issues and the money drove the construction of  Scarlet Junior High and the venerable Huron High School. I don’t remember the date, but…