The memorial will be 3 p.m. on Friday, September 11 in the Performing Arts Center on Grand Valley’s Allendale Campus. The memorial will be followed with a reception in the Grand River Room of the Kirkhof Center.
Memorial speakers will include Seidman’s son Tom, as well as:
• Richard M. DeVos, Co-Founder of Amway and Chairman of
the NBA Orlando Magic
• Arend D. Lubbers, President Emeritus, Grand Valley State University
• Birge Swift Watkins, Former National Investor Outreach Director, FDIC/RTC; Former Staff Assistant to President Ford
• Roger Porter, IBM Professor of Business and Government, Harvard University
• Sue Herera, Founding member of CNBC and co-anchor of Power Lunch
• Arend D. Lubbers, President Emeritus, Grand Valley State University
• Birge Swift Watkins, Former National Investor Outreach Director, FDIC/RTC; Former Staff Assistant to President Ford
• Roger Porter, IBM Professor of Business and Government, Harvard University
• Sue Herera, Founding member of CNBC and co-anchor of Power Lunch
The event is open to the public, but RSVPs are requested. For more information, visit www.gvsu.edu/seidman or call (616) 331-2180.
As one of the founders of Grand Valley State University, Seidman helped galvanize local support for the establishment of a public four-year university in West Michigan. Beyond his connection to Grand Valley, Seidman was a remarkable man. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and earned 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 was president of WZZM-TV in Grand Rapids, which he helped found. In 1961, he was elected as a delegate to Michigan's Constitutional Convention, which re-wrote the state's turn-of-the-century document. 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 later years, Seidman served as chief commentator for CNBC.
