By Zachary Gorchow
President of Michigan Operations
Posted: November 27, 2023 7:10 PM

An outpouring of tributes, grief and shock washed over the Capitol community Monday over the death of Kathy Wilbur, a giant in state government and higher education whose career spanned almost 50 years through the legislative and executive branches as well as two of the state's public universities.

Wilbur, 70, died Sunday morning at her Okemos home surrounded by family after a sudden recurrence of cancer, the disease she had beaten back after a first diagnosis in 2004.

Only five weeks ago Wilbur announced she would retire as senior vice president of government relations at Michigan State University effective in January. Friends said not long after the announcement, she began experiencing pain and received the cancer diagnosis. Her eldest son, Tom Wilbur, said she decided to keep her battle private, so a relatively small circle was aware.

Last Friday, word began to circulate her condition was dire. When word spread Sunday she had died, the grief was palpable. Wilbur was a friend and mentor to too many people to count.

"She was the complete package," said former Governor John Engler, who named Wilbur to lead three different departments in his administration.

Wilbur got her start in the 1970s working for the Senate Republican central staff. In 1978, she worked on the reelection campaign of U.S. Sen. Robert Griffin. While Griffin lost to Carl Levin that year, a Republican who did win office that year with her help, Bill Sederburg to the Michigan Senate, was so impressed with Wilbur's performance he named her his chief of staff. Wilbur's husband, Tom, was Sederburg's campaign manager.

Wilbur's career ascended from there.

In 1984, she won one of the two Republican Party nominations to the board of her beloved alma mater, the Michigan State University Board of Trustees. With President Ronald Reagan leading the Republicans to a landslide that year, Wilbur was the top vote-getter and won an eight-year term.

Sederburg said Wilbur's work and work ethic was remarkable. He recalled her detailed organized daily to-do lists and how she would methodically work through them. But her biggest strength was her interpersonal skills, something that would become her hallmark to a legion of friends, co-workers and mentees.

"She was able to work with a wide variety of people. She was able to walk the paths and get things done while other people would have been caught up with ideology and other problems," he said.

Sederburg's focus was on higher education in the Senate. Wilbur helped him set up "mindpower conferences" bringing together the state's universities to harness their knowledge and resources on how to grow the state's economy.

"She was able to do it and get everybody engaged in it in a positive way without anybody saying, 'This is the Kathy Wilbur Show,'" he said. "It was kind of classic Kathy that she was able to pull something off like that."

On Monday, Engler, who won the governorship in a 1990 upset over Governor Jim Blanchard, recalled Wilbur from their days together in the Senate as someone who "was very smart and always very prepared, very informed." The incoming administration knew it would be making several changes to state government, and it needed people who could lead and command respect. People like Wilbur.

"She checked every box," he said. "We just thought she would be a good member of our administration and she turned out to be very strong."

Wilbur was a department director for nearly all 12 years Engler was governor, leading the Department of Commerce, the Department of Licensing and Regulation and then the Department of Consumer and Industry Services.

When Wilbur became head of government relations at Central Michigan University, the two stayed connected with Engler's roots in Isabella County, having grown up in Beal City and represented the region in the Legislature. Wilbur eventually served as interim president at CMU.

When the MSU board hired Engler as interim president in the wake of the Larry Nassar scandal, Engler again turned to Wilbur, knowing she would be a huge help.

"During that year where we got so much done, she was a key part of everything," he said.

Apart from their work together, the two were friends.

"She was very funny. Great wit. Michelle made the point, Kathy was so positive," Engler said of what his wife, Michelle, said of Wilbur. "You never heard her speak ill of anyone. She was always focused on 'how do we make it happen, how do we get it done.'"

Engler said the members of his administration are hurting "a lot" at Wilbur's sudden death.

Blanchard, who worked with Wilbur most in recent years on MSU matters, lauded what she did for the university during turbulent times amid the Nassar scandal, the repeated presidential changes and board infighting.

"Given all the dysfunctional issues there, she was a real rock of Gibraltar for MSU," he said. "I don't know anyone who did more in recent years to hold the place together than Kathy Wilbur."

Engler, noting MSU will soon hire a new president, said even though Wilbur was to retire in January, she undoubtedly would have served as a critical resource to help the new leader.

"There's going to be lots of ways that's Kathy's contributions are going to be missed," he said.

Tom Wilbur, Kathy Wilbur's eldest son, said he was very proud of his mother.

"She leaves an enduring legacy of love, kindness, friendship and service to her community," he said. "She really cared about people. And she really cared about trying to make people's lives better."

Governor Gretchen Whitmer praised Wilbur as a dedicated leader and thoughtful public servant.

"From the Legislature to state government to her decades of service in higher education, Kathy always got the job done and was a constant source of truth, stability, and strength," she said in a statement. "Her legacy will endure at Central Michigan University and Michigan State University, two places where she delivered lasting, positive changes."

U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly) said Wilbur was "for years my first and last call on anything related to" MSU.

"A dedicated alumna, Kathy's steady hand helped MSU weather good times and bad, all driven by an absolute love for the school and the community around it," she said in a statement.

Wilbur served on the board of the Citizens Research Council of Michigan. Eric Lupher, president of the CRC, said she helped recruit many current board members and was a friend, mentor and colleague.

"Kathy's personality and positions exposed her to many people whom she knew shared the value of our fact-based, independent, non-partisan public policy research, as she so mightily did. After her many years in state government, she moved to higher education and her strong connections in the academic community helped bring several university presidents to our Council of Trustees," Lupher said. "It's hard to find anyone anywhere, especially in the world of people who care about good public policy, who did not think the world of Kathy."

There was a massive outpouring of tributes and sadness on social media, remembering Wilbur as an unmatched mentor.

Several said it was difficult to find the right words in such a painful moment.

"My colleague of 10+ years at CMU, my steady lunch date for chef salads (w/turkey!) at Kewpee's in Lansing, & my close friend & mentor... I will miss Kathy dearly," said Lisa Keith in a post on X. "To know her is to have loved a legacy & a constant source of inspiration. She taught me grit & grace. This one hurts."

A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, December 16, at The Peoples Church in East Lansing.