L. William Seidman, founding chair of Grand Valley’s Board of
Trustees and former FDIC chairman, died Wednesday at the age of 88.
Seidman was born on April 19, 1921, in Grand Rapids. He received
his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College, his LLB from Harvard
University and his MBA from the University of Michigan’s Ross School
of Business.
During World War II, Seidman served in the U.S. Navy as a
communications officer on a destroyer and received the Bronze Star for
service in the invasion of the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa.
He was the managing partner of Seidman and Seidman (now B.D.O.
Seidman), an international accounting firm, and had been president of
WZZM-TV, which he helped found. In 1974, he joined President Gerald R.
Ford’s administration as an economic advisor and later became chair of
the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., a position he held from 1985 to
1991. He also served as head of the Resolution Trust Corp. in the
aftermath of the Savings and Loan crisis. In recent years, Seidman
served as a chief commentator for CNBC.
Seidman was one of the principal founders of Grand Valley State
University, helping galvanize local support for the establishment of a
public four-year university in West Michigan.
“I was motivated because I had moved back to Grand Rapids from San
Francisco and I thought Grand Rapids had everything except one thing
that San Francisco had and that was, we didn't have a public four-year
college in our town,” Seidman said in a recent interview.
Seidman remained proud of his association with Grand Valley. “I've
had a great life. I've worked for three presidents of the United
States, I've been in major business, and in other education,” he said.
“There's nothing that I've done in life that gives me the satisfaction
of seeing how Grand Valley State University is delivering on its
promise to the Western Michigan area.”
Grand Valley’s Seidman College of Business was named for his
father, Frank. He maintained close ties to the university and returned
recently to talk about the financial crisis and give his opinion on
the presidential candidates as part of the 2008 Seidman College of
Business Breakfast Series.
Seidman helped found Washington Campus, a consortium of 17
business schools including UCLA, Cornell, the University of Michigan,
Grand Valley and others.
Gifts in memory of Mr. Seidman may be made to the L. William Seidman Memorial Fund at Grand Valley State University. For more information or to make a gift, visit www.gvsu.edu/development.
VIDEO: Seidman reflects on his association with Grand Valley:
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