EMU Today

YPSILANTI – Bridget Mary McCormack, who has served as a Michigan Court Supreme Court Justice since 2012, has been selected as commencement speaker for Eastern Michigan University’s ceremony on Saturday, Dec. 17.

Lt. Col. Charles Kettles, an Ypsilanti resident and Eastern Michigan University alumnus who distinguished himself in heroic combat operations in Vietnam, will receive an honorary Doctor of Public Service degree at the ceremony. At a White House ceremony last summer, Kettles received the Medal of Honor, the military’s highest award.

The Eastern Michigan University Board of Regents approved the speaker and honorary degree recipient during its regular board meeting Tuesday, Nov.1.

Michigan Supreme Court Justice Bridget Mary McCormack

McCormack joined the Michigan Supreme Court in January 2013.  Before her election to the Court in November 2012, she was a law professor and dean at the University of Michigan Law School, where she continues to teach.

McCormack is a graduate of the New York University Law School. She spent the first five years of her legal career in New York, first with the Legal Aid Society and then at the Office of the Appellate Defender, representing over 1,000 clients in New York's trial and appellate courts. In 1996, she became a faculty fellow at the Yale Law School.

 Founder of Michigan Innocence Clinic

In 1998, she joined the University of Michigan Law School faculty.  At Michigan Law, she taught criminal law, legal ethics, and various clinical courses. Her scholarship focused on the professional benefits of clinical legal education. She also created new clinics at the law school, including a Domestic Violence Clinic and a Pediatric Health Advocacy Clinic.

In 2008, then-Associate Dean McCormack cofounded the Michigan Innocence Clinic, in which students represent wrongfully convicted Michiganders.  The clinic has shined a light on the important justice issues underlying wrongful convictions.

Justice McCormack is married to Steven Croley, also a lawyer and law professor, currently on leave from the University of Michigan Law School to serve as General Counsel to the U.S. Department of Energy. They have four children attending college and the Ann Arbor public schools, and enjoy frequent family trips to west Michigan.

 Kettles received military’s highest honor

Lt. Col. Charles Kettles receives the Medal of Honor, the U.S. Military's highest award, from President Barack Obama this past summer.

This past summer, Kettles, 86, was awarded the nation’s highest military award, receiving the Medal of Honor from President Barack Obama, who noted Kettles’ courage and valor in saving the lives of 40 soldiers and four of his own crew members on May 15, 1967, during fierce fighting near Duc Pho, Vietnam.

Kettles, a helicopter pilot, repeatedly flew into a valley to save soldiers who were under heavy fire. Later, Kettles earned a master’s degree at Eastern Michigan’s College of Technology, teaching students there while developing the University’s Aviation Management program.

He was born in Ypsilanti Jan. 9, 1930, the son of a World War I Royal Air Force (Canadian) and World War II Air Transport Command (U.S. Army Air Corps) pilot, and thus had aviation in his blood.

While attending the Edison Institute High School in Dearborn, Michigan, Kettles honed his love of flying on the Ford Motor Company Flight Department simulator. Following high school graduation, he enrolled in Michigan State Normal College (now Eastern Michigan University), where he studied engineering. Two years later, he was drafted to the Army at age 21.

Deep roots in Ypsilanti and at Eastern Michigan

Kettles served active duty tours in Korea, Japan and Thailand. Kettles returned in 1956 and established a Ford Dealership in Dewitt, Michigan, with his brother. He answered the call to serve again in 1963, when the United States was engaged in the Vietnam War and needed pilots. Fixed-wing-qualified, Kettles volunteered for Active Duty and was assigned as a flight commander with the 176th Assault Helicopter Company, 14th Combat Aviation Battalion, and deployed to Vietnam from February through November 1967. His second tour of duty in Vietnam lasted from October 1969, through October 1970.

In 1970, Kettles went to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, where he served as an aviation team chief and readiness coordinator supporting the Army Reserve. He remained in San Antonio until his retirement from the Army in 1978.

Kettles then completed his bachelor’s degree at Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, Texas, and then earned his master’s degree in commercial construction at EMU, where he went on to develop the Aviation Management Program at the College of Technology and taught both disciplines.

He later worked for Chrysler Pentastar Aviation until his retirement in 1993.

Kettles currently resides in Ypsilanti, Michigan, with his wife Ann.

About Eastern Michigan University

Founded in 1849, Eastern is the second oldest university in Michigan. It currently serves 22,000 students pursuing undergraduate, graduate, specialist, doctoral and certificate degrees in the arts, sciences and professions. In all, more than 300 majors, minors and concentrations are delivered through the University's Colleges of Arts and Sciences; Business; Education; Health and Human Services; Technology, and its graduate school. EMU is regularly recognized by national publications for its excellence, diversity, and commitment to applied education. For more information about Eastern Michigan University, visit the University's website.