Those we lost: Ferguson, Herbert, Wharton among 2024 deaths

Howard Brody, 75, director of the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences at Michigan State University from 1985 to 2000, died at his Tennessee home July 22. A practicing physician and MSU professor for more than two decades, Brody also wrote a health column for City Pulse in the early 2000s. His academic contributions included swaths of research on end-of-life care, the placebo effect, the pharmaceutical industry and medical ethics. In 2006, Brody left MSU to become the director of the Institute for the Medical Humanities at University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston through his retirement in 2016.

Joel Ferguson, 85, elected as Lansing’s first Black City Council member in 1967, died Oct. 19. The U.S. Marine Corps veteran and 1965 Michigan State University graduate lived a storied life that included serving as a member of Michigan State University’s Board of Trustees from 1987 to 1995 and 1997 to 2020, including 12 years as chair. A longtime Democratic National Committee member, Ferguson also chaired Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign in mid-Michigan and as Michigan campaign manager for Jesse Jackson’s 1984 and 1988 presidential bids. He was a successful developer, most recently of the Red Cedar District, and on many boards, including the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation and the national Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.. His life story was immortalized in the Library of Congress in March 2022.

Steve Finamore

Steve Finamore, 60, a longtime area youth basketball coach, died Nov. 14. Finamore was still coaching at Chippewa Middle School and substitute teaching in Okemos. Between 2010 and 2018, he led the East Lansing High School boys varsity team to a 128-44 record and two consecutive undefeated seasons. Other coaching stops included Lansing and Jackson community colleges and Sexton and Portland high schools. Finamore also served as a student manager under Michigan State University coach Tom Izzo when the Spartans won a national title in 2000.

James Herbert

James Herbert, 83, co-founder of the Lansing-based Neogen Corp., died March 16. He launched the biotech company after moving to Lansing with his wife, Judith, in 1982. In 2017, they joined forces with James and Susan Herman and donated $2.5 million toward Sparrow’s Herbert-Herman Cancer Center. The Herberts went on to gift $5 million to the Sparrow Foundation in 2022, the largest single donation in Sparrow’s history. He sat on the hospital’s board of directors until his death.

Alfreda Schmidt

Alfreda Schmidt, 97, former Lansing City Council member, died on April due to complications from a stroke. Known throughout the city for her vast hat collection, Schmidt represented the city’s 2nd Ward from 1981 to 1993 and also served as an Ingham County commissioner for four years. Her public service career included advocacy for numerous roadway improvements and establishing the Hawk Island community playground and Maplewood Women’s Shelter. In 2012, the city renamed its Southside Community Center in her honor.

Ted Stewart

Ted Stewart, 56, founder and owner of Old Town’s Metro Retro vintage outlet, died unexpectedly in his sleep March 30. Stewart co-founded the business in 2016 with his husband, Dannie, promoting it as a safe space for members of Greater Lansing’s LGBTQ+ community. The beloved activist was remembered in hundreds of social media comments in the days following his death, one week after Metro Retro’s eighth anniversary. In May, Ashley Kelsey, a friend of Stewart, took on his duties and reopened Metro Retro.

Clifton Wharton

Clifton Wharton Jr., 98, Michigan State University’s president from 1970 to 1978 and the first Black president of a major school, died on Nov. 16. His name lives on via the Wharton Center for the Performing Arts, which MSU dedicated to him and his wife, Dolores, in 1982. During his time in East Lansing, Wharton oversaw the creation of the MSU Foundation and helped debut the school’s first superconducting cyclotron. He went on to become the first Black chancellor of the nation’s largest university system, the State University of New York, from 1978 to 1987. After that, he became the first Black person to become CEO of a Fortune 500 company when he was named chairman of the pension fund TIAA-CREF. In 1993, he served as U.S. Deputy secretary of state under President Bill Clinton.