BIG SHOES TO FILL AFTER TRACI LOSS OF BERRIEN COUNTY REGISTER OF DEEDS, LORI JARVIS

By DEBRA HAIGHT

BCR Correspondent

ST.JOSEPH – It’s been a tough month for the staff of the Berrien County Register of Deeds office as they’ve had to deal with the sudden loss of longtime Register Lori Jarvis. The Register of Deeds office reviews and records all land and property transactions and serves as the county’s “land historian.”

Jarvis died in a single car accident on June 14 on M-63 in Hagar Township. She had served county residents as the Register of Deeds since January 2001 and had twice been named Register of the Year for the state of Michigan by her colleagues in the Michigan Association of Register of Deeds.

A Nebraska native, she moved to Michigan after meeting and marrying Eugene “Butch” Jarvis at a Young Republicans Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. She worked in South Bend and as an account manager at ARS Advertising in St. Joseph before being elected Register of Deeds. She leaves behind her husband and three children.

A Coloma resident, she served that community by helping to organize a Students Against Drunk Driving chapter, co-chairing the After Prom committee for five years and serving as a member of the Coloma Schools Steering Committee.

Deputy Register Rhonda Rockhill was sworn in as the Chief Deputy Register of Deeds in late June to assume Jarvis’s duties on an interim basis. Whoever is appointed to the position on a permanent basis will serve until the 2020 election.

A committee made up of County Clerk Sharon Tyler, County Prosecutor Mike Sepic and Trial Judge Mabel Mayfield is currently meeting to start the process of finding a permanent replacement. Sepic said last week that a press release was to go out this week outlining their plans.

Rockhill said last week that although the grief “hits in waves”, she and other staff are doing their best to get the office back to normal. “We were back operating the Monday following the accident and we were up to date that Tuesday afternoon,” she said. “The office is back to normal now and we’re staying steady which is the way Lori would have wanted us to.”

She has worked in the Register of Deeds office part-time since 2009 doing foreclosure searches and became the chief deputy when Sue Hoffman retired in April. She said she worked closely over the years with Jarvis to set up the foreclosure unit in the office in order to keep more money in the county.

Rockhill said she’s especially appreciative of Hoffman agreeing to come out of retirement for a short time to help them after Jarvis’s death. “She’s been really a godsend,” she said. “She’s so reliable, we’re very lucky to have her back. She’s here until the appointment is made and we get back on our feet.”

She said office staff members are grateful for everyone’s support, including that of other Registers of Deeds from around the state. She noted that the Montcalm County Register as well as the Roscommon County Deputy Register were on hand to help them their first day back at work after the accident.

“I’ve been in touch with several registers over the weeks if I have any question,” Rockhill said. “It’s been great to have their support. We also have all the notes Lori left to guide us.”

The Michigan Association of Register of Deeds have been among those paying tribute to Jarvis in the weeks since her death. Midland County Register of Deeds Julie Atkinson wrote of Jarvis’s accomplishments in late June.

“A family, her professional colleagues, and indeed the entire county of Berrien lost an amazing woman on June 14. Lori Jarvis was the best of the best,” Atkinson wrote. “She was smart, sassy, passionate, and an engaged and dedicated public servant.”

“She often expressed her unabashed love of her husband and kids and her home state of Nebraska. She gave her all to her constituents as Berrien County register of deeds. She considered her duty to them her calling and took seriously her role to be their ‘champion’.”

Atkinson also praised Jarvis’s efforts at the state level, both in the association and working with legislators to improve and update laws. She noted that Jarvis was a past president of the Michigan Association of Register of Deeds and the only Register to be twice honored as the Michigan Register of the Year.

“She served in the legislative committee and led the fight for several pieces of legislation that are now in effect,” Atkinson wrote. “These laws help all of her fellow Registers to do their jobs and her tireless efforts will never be forgotten. Lori truly had a servant’s heart; kind, thoughtful, a joy-filled helper! Her loss is difficult for so many, as her life was big and active and she touched so many lives.”