RECENT WEEKS HAVE SOUTHWEST MI MOURNING THE LOSS OF FOUR LONGTIME GOVERNMENT AND SCHOOL DISTRICT LEADERS

Longtime Oronoko Township Supervisor Ernest Hildebrand died before Christmas, while veteran Pipestone Township Supervisor Hazen Harner died on Christmas Day. News came last week that longtime Cass County Commissioner Robert Wagel had died Dec. 31 and early this week that Eau Claire Superintendent David Gray died Jan. 12.
Gray died unexpectedly last Friday at age 72. He had returned for a second stint as the Eau Claire superintendent in 2015 after leaving the district in 2000. In all, he spent 34 years in Eau Claire as a teacher, coach, principal, administrator and superintendent.
“It was a shock,” Board of Education President Darrell Ferguson said Sunday. “I was as shocked as anybody to hear that he had died. I hadn’t noticed that he was sick at all.”
Ferguson called Gray a “people person” who got along with just about everybody. “He was a people person, that was his strong point,” Ferguson said. “He liked people and all the employees liked him. He would struggle sometimes with tough decisions, but he would make them.”
“He was just out of the army when he first came,” Ferguson said. “He was a teacher and a coach and moved up the ladder into administration. He was a principal and then the desegregation coordinator before becoming superintendent the first time.”
Gray went on to be the superintendent in Eaton Rapids after leaving Eau Claire in 2000. He then came back to this area to take a position with the Michigan Department of Education as the field service representative to the Berrien Regional Education Service Agency (RESA).
Wagel, 77, was a longtime educator and guidance counselor in the Dowagiac Union School District as well as a Cass County Commissioner. He retired from Dowagiac High School in 2001. He served on the Cass County Board including several years as board chairman for 22 years, retiring in 2016.
Cass County Commissioner Clark Cobb represented the Dowagiac area on the board along with Wagel. They worked together on the board from 2008 to 2016 and found they had many things in common despite being on different sides of the aisle politically.
“I always had an easy time working with him, we were very like minded,” Cobb said. “He voted on things in a way that made sense to him. That’s what I respected about him, he was not political.”
While Wagel served on several county-level boards during his years as a county commissioner, Cobb said one of his favorite boards to serve on was the Area Agency on Aging. “His goal was to work for the well-being of the people,” he said. “He tried to get information out to the people he served.”
Harner, 84, served as Pipestone Township supervisor for 42 years from 1970 to 2012 when he retired. He was a third generation farmer, growing fruit, vegetables and grains on the family farm. He served in the U.S. Army and was a trustee and usher at Chapel Hill United Methodist Church in Sodus.
Current Supervisor Doug Davis remembered Harner as a man who was very active in the community and church. Davis served on the township board with Harner for eight years and lost a close supervisor race to him in 2008 before succeeding him when Harner chose to retire in 2012.
“He will certainly be missed,” Davis said. “He was an excellent farmer and he served his community. After I won the supervisor job, he offered his help and I called him a few times. He saw a lot of changes in his 42 years serving the township.”
Hildebrand, 82, served as township supervisor for over 20 years, having first been appointed to the post in July 1992 when he succeeded Robert Pagel, Sr. who died in office. Hildebrand’s 42 year in public service included 12 years as a trustee as well as service on the township planning commission and board of appeals.
State Rep. Dave Pagel knew Hildebrand his whole life. “He succeeded my father as supervisor and their farm came up to the back end of ours,” he said. “I knew him pretty much my whole life. He and my dad were good friends.”
Pagel said Hildebrand’s legacy will be his family, his farm and all his years of public service. “Part of his legacy is his son Mike and the good work Mike is doing now as supervisor,” Pagel said.