Contact:
Matt Bach
Director of Communications
Michigan Municipal League
(734) 669-6317; C: (810) 874-1073
[email protected]; www.mml.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 25, 2019
David Lossing Receives Honorary Life Membership
Michigan Municipal League Celebrates Long-Time Mayor and League Supporter
LANSING, Michigan — The Michigan Municipal League awarded former long-time Linden Mayor David Lossing with the League’s highest individual honor—the Honorary Life Membership Award. The award was given during the League’s annual Capital Conference Awards Gala March 19 in Lansing.
David Lossing served his community of Linden for nearly two decades. He was first elected to city council in 1998 and later served as mayor for three terms, from 2004 to 2016. Bob Slattery, former Mt. Morris mayor and fellow Honorary Life Member of the League, presented Lossing the honor Tuesday.
“Active, inspiring, and leader are three words that define this year’s Honorary Life Member recipient recipient—David Lossing—perfectly,” Slattery said. “David’s involvement with the League was much more than just something he did, it was his passion and it became a part of his life. He is extremely deserving of the League’s highest individual award.”
Lossing served as the Michigan Municipal League President from 2012 to 2013, served the prior year as the League’s vice president, and as a League Board member before that. Lossing was active with the Michigan Association of Mayors as well as the League’s Elected Officials Academy. He has served as EOA president; was instrumental in tying the compensation of elected officials in Linden to the completion of EOA classes, and was one of the first two elected officials to ever earn the EOA Level Four Ambassador Award, in 2012.
While League president, Lossing took on two major initiatives—advancing the importance of Town-Gown collaborative relationships between communities and universities, and raising awareness of bone marrow donations. A bone marrow donor himself, Lossing staunchly advocated getting people to register for bone marrow donation through Michigan Blood’s “Be The Match” program. He also successfully led the charge to create a new “Be The Match” fundraising vanity license plate in Michigan to raise money to help cure blood cancer. The plate was established in 2015 and remains available today.
Lossing said he was truly honored to join the Honorary Life Membership club, which now includes 93 individuals, including former U.S. President Gerald R. Ford, former Michigan governors William G. Milliken, and James Blanchard. The Honorary Life Membership was first awarded in 1932 to Ganson Taggart of Grand Rapids. In his acceptance speech Tuesday at the awards Gala, Lossing thanked his wife, Suzanne; League staff and League members.
“I want to thank everyone here tonight because you make Michigan better,” Lossing said. “You make your communities better. To quote former Congressman John Dingell, who we just recently lost, ‘elected officials do not have power, they hold power entrusted by people who empower them.’ I hope you do the same.”
Lossing formerly worked as regional director for U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, running two of his congressional offices in Michigan from 1991 to 2000. He went on to work in multiple roles with the University of Michigan: first as associate director of state outreach in the Office of Government Relations, and later as the director of government relations and adjunct lecturer. Currently, Lossing is working on his dissertation for his Ph.D. in Higher Education Leadership at Indiana State University.
About the award: The Honorary Life Membership, first awarded in 1932, is the League’s highest individual honor, reserved for the most active and inspiring leaders dedicated to the League and its mission.
For photos of Lossing receiving the award go to this Michigan Municipal League “Awards and Honors Photos” album on flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/michigancommunities/albums/72157677160400387. Photos can be downloaded from the League’s flickr page for free. We just ask that the following photo credit be given: Flickr Photo Michigan Municipal League/mml.org.
For additional information contact the League’s Matt Bach, director of communications, at (734) 669-6317 (office) and [email protected].
About the League: Michigan Municipal League is dedicated to making Michigan’s communities better by thoughtfully innovating programs, energetically connecting ideas and people, actively serving members with resources and services, and passionately inspiring positive change for Michigan’s greatest centers of potential: its communities. The League advocates on behalf of its member communities in Lansing, Washington, D.C., and the courts; provides educational opportunities for elected and appointed municipal officials; and assists municipal leaders in administering services to their communities through League programs and services. Learn more at mml.org.