John H. Logie is being remembered today as a fierce advocate for change, a respected community leader and a beloved member of our family. Mr. Logie passed away Aug. 4 after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease five years ago.
Mr. Logie joined Warner in 1969, and practiced as a litigator and health care lawyer for more than 35 years. He became a partner 1974, serving in several leadership positions during this tenure at the firm. He was a true Warner lawyer, who cared passionately about his clients, mentoring young attorneys and the best interests of the firm. Mr. Logie is remembered by one of his partners as “a man of many talents always accompanied by kindness and generosity and never at a loss for words.”
Many of Mr. Logie’s cases reached the appellate courts and established broad principles of law, including Board of Ed of Intermediate School District of Kent County v. DeVries, a constitutional challenge to the makeup of an intermediate school district board, and Miller Brothers v. Department of Natural Resources, an inverse condemnation case that helped define the limits of governmental regulation. Mr. Logie was selected by President Gerald R. Ford as part of a group of Warner attorneys to research the legal grounds on which to pardon Richard M. Nixon.
Active professionally and in the community, Mr. Logie served as chair of the State Bar of Michigan Civil Justice Advisory Group for the U.S. District Court’s Western District of Michigan, president of the Michigan Society of Hospital Attorneys and general counsel to a number of West Michigan hospitals. He was also chair of the State Bar of Michigan’s Condemnation Committee of the Real Property Section.
Mr. Logie was Grand Rapids’ longest-tenured mayor, serving from 1991 to 2003. Under his leadership, the city focused on economic development throughout the community, the revitalization of downtown and building up neighborhood associations. He was involved in the passage of a few key pieces of state legislation, including the rewriting and funding of environmental cleanups and the creation of renaissance zones. He was also active in historic preservation, particularly in Heritage Hill, where he and his family made their home. Mr. Logie also created and led Urban Core Mayors, which today is a bipartisan, multi-regional coalition of Michigan’s 13 central city mayors intended to address areas of mutual concern as well as develop an agenda for local and state policy for cities.
The late U.S. Rep. Vernon Ehlers had this to say about Mr. Logie in recommending him for the State Bar of Michigan’s Frank J. Kelley Distinguished Public Service Award, which he received in 2011: “John epitomizes the meaning of public servant.” Another of his law partners remembered Mr. Logie as having four great loves: his family, the University of Michigan, Warner and the city of Grand Rapids, noting “he was equally passionate about all of these.”
Mr. Logie attended Williams College in Massachusetts before completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan. Mr. Logie served five years in the Navy, first in the Pacific destroyer fleet and later as an instructor at the Naval Academy. During this time, he received a master’s degree from George Washington University. After leaving the Navy, he returned to the University of Michigan to study law, earning a Juris Doctor degree in 1969. A proud Wolverine, he wore a maize and blue hardhat to ribbon-cuttings and groundbreakings as mayor. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Public Service from Ferris State University in 2004 and Central Michigan University in 2009.
He leaves behind his beloved wife and partner, Susan, three children and six grandchildren. Today, we have lost a giant in our community and in our family. We will miss our longtime colleague and friend, John Logie.
Read John’s obituary here.