PROFILES
PROFILES
COL L E C T ION S
Family Matters Researcher Nicole Persley has plenty of reasons to feel proud of her grandfather.
Beyond the Bicentennial IN 2017, THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN BICENTENNIAL commemorated 200 years of achievement at the University of Michigan. It looked at U-M’s past, including its impact on society and the people who helped shape the University, as well as its role in defining the future. Now, Gary D. Krenz, formerly the Executive Director of the University of Michigan Bicentennial Office, has been appointed Director for Post-Bicentennial Planning at the Bentley Historical Library. In this new role, Krenz will manage the transition of relevant projects and practices from the Bicentennial Office to the Bentley, and will launch new projects and programs pertinent to U-M history, working in conjunction with the Bentley’s University History Group. He will also participate in planning the new addition to the University’s historic Detroit Observatory, which was
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Bentley when he first came to campus. “My dissertation had a lot to do with John Dewey (the American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer). I had known that Dewey had started his career at Michigan, and I couldn’t wait to get up to the Bentley to see what the Library had. It was my first experience with primary sources and the archives. To hold Dewey’s syllabus for the ethics course he taught here in the 1880s, to see the real thing, was fantastic.” Krenz’s appointment was effective May 1 of this year. “The way that the University community responded to the bicentennial shows that appreciation of our history has value in building institutional identity and pride, and that critical examination of our history has value in correcting historical oversights and fostering a more inclusive community,” says Krenz. “U-M’s past is rich with episodes that can provide context, precedent, and analogy for thinking about current Gary Krenz adjusts challenges.” n
a telescope at the historic Detroit Observatory
By Lara Zielin
NICOLE PERSLEY GREW UP in
(LEFT TO RIGHT) BL023296, BL022797
By Lara Zielin
approved by the Board of Regents in February. A goal of the new effort is to make the Observatory a locus for exploration and presentation of University history. “The Bicentennial raised awareness of U-M history, engaged a lot of people, and demonstrated that people are interested in our past,” Krenz says. “In a way, my appointment at Bentley signals an institutional commitment to keep this going.” The Bicentennial activities also produced a wealth of new material about U-M, including the Uncommon Education documentaries, proceedings from theme semesters and grants projects, exhibits, a new edition of the U-M Encyclopedic Survey, and more. “A first task is to gather this material with others into an accessible format, encourage its continued use, and build on it,” Krenz says. Krenz joined the university as an administrator in 1988, and has spent most of his career working in the Office of the President. He earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a B.A. in philosophy from Northwestern University. His passion for philosophy and ethics helped him find and fall in love with the
LON HORWEDEL
The Bentley welcomes Gary Krenz, whose new role ensures U-M history isn’t only in the past.
Virginia and always assumed she was white. But after graduating from the University of Michigan in 1992, her personal research uncovered evidence that her grandfather was African American. Years later, a 23andMe test confirmed it. Dr. Alonzo Bond Persley graduated in 1915 from the University of Michigan Medical School, and was Persley’s paternal grandfather. Now, with the help of Brian Williams, the Bentley’s Archivist for University History, Persley has been able to learn even more about him. “I was raised white and never knew anything about my African American lineage,” Persley says. “I started to wonder: If my grandfather identified as African American, did my father know and want to keep it a secret?” Or, alternatively, did Alonzo Persley pass for white
during medical school, and keep his African American heritage under wraps? The Bentley’s African American Student Life Project team, led by Williams, has worked
I STARTED TO “ WONDER: IF MY GRANDFATHER IDENTIFIED AS AFRICAN AMERICAN, DID MY FATHER KNOW AND WANT TO KEEP IT A SECRET?
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Top left: The oldest African American fraternity on campus, Alpha Phi Alpha, in 1912. Alonzo Persley, not pictured, was a member while he was in medical school. Top right: Alonzo Persley’s 1915 medical school graduation photo.
to identify all African American students at Michigan from its founding to the first Black Action Movement in 1970. Alonzo Persley was already on the radar, though his medical school graduation photo didn’t make his heritage obvious. “He looked extremely white,” Persley says. However, additional research by Williams and his team turned up the name of Alonzo Persley’s undergraduate school, Lincoln University, which is a historically black college. “He also lived in a historically African American neighborhood in Ann Arbor, which was in the old Fourth Ward,” says Williams. Additionally, Alonzo Persley was featured in the NAACP’s magazine, Crisis, in its 1915 education issue, which highlighted African American graduates. He was also a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the oldest African American fraternity on campus. “I’m even more proud of him now,” Persley says. “This makes what he was able to accomplish even more profound. I can’t imagine how difficult it was for him during that time. I have so much more respect for him that he didn’t
try to hide his identity.” Knowing more about her grandfather also helps her feel more connected to U-M’s campus. “Angelo’s [restaurant] is right next to one of the spots where he lived, and that was my favorite breakfast spot. He also lived near the Gandy Dancer, which is where my father and I would go when my father came to visit me. These places are a lot more sentimental now.” Persley is a graduate of the University of Michigan Stamps School of Art & Design. Today, she lives in Boca Raton, Florida, where she is an artist and real estate investor, but she says she wants to return to Michigan and the Bentley to see if she can uncover more about her grandfather. “Everyone called him ‘doc,’ and I would love to hear stories about him. It could be so informative, to learn more about what he was like.” She laughs that she spent four years on U-M’s campus and never knew that information on her family was so close by. “I was steps away from the Bentley the entire time. One block over, and I could have had all this information.” n
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