Michaux Henry

Wilkinson

1933 2015

Michaux Henry Wilkinson (Mich) died Tuesday, June 9th, 2015. He lived 81 happy years.

He leaves his loving wife of 55 years, Sally; his daughter Dell Wilkinson Johansson and husband Thomas; his son John Michaux Wilkinson and wife Tara; and his five grandchildren: Nathaniel Michaux Wilkinson, Abigail Marie Wilkinson, Erik Michaux Gunnar Johansson, Elsa Annika Sally Johansson, and Hannah Lively Wilkinson along with countless other family members and friends. He was especially close to his cousins Dorothy Dot Dansey, Mary Anne Tally, and Dale Games.

Mich (pronounced Mish) graduated from the University of Richmond in 1955 where he studied political science and mathematics and played on the baseball team. Upon graduation, Mich served as an officer in the United States Marine Corp a time that indelibly shaped his views on exemplary service and left him with lifelong friendships and was a pitcher on the Camp Lejeune baseball team. After a brief time in banking, his passion for education and service led him to the University of Virginia where he obtained his PhD in government in 1977. In Charlottesville, he worked with the Institute of Government (now part of the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service) until he moved to the office of the County Manager of Henrico County, VA. From there, Mich became the first Executive Director of the Commission on Local Government in Richmond, VA.

The Commission on Local Government helped to resolve disputes between cities and counties whenever a city needed to extend its borders. From his colleagues, we have learned the Commission defined a new practice of very careful description and analysis of how communities' economic, social, and fiscal conditions would be affected by municipal boundary changes. In dozens of cases, the Commission Reports on bitterly contested disputes were of such quality that the Special Courts (convened to resolve the disputes) often praised their comprehensive content while following the reports recommendations. During his tenure as Executive Director, Mich served at the pleasure of 6 governors: 3 Democrats and 3 Republicans.

Mich railed against inequality wherever he saw it and was an ardent advocate for equitable income, civil rights, womens rights, and gay rights among others. He was also passionate about the environment, aesthetics, population issues, independent media, religious freedom, higher education, human rights, geopolitical concerns, and countless other issues. He donated to no less than 5 dozen separate causes, not

counting political ones. The only secret he ever kept from his wife Sally was the prodigious number and size of his charitable and political

counting political ones. The only secret he ever kept from his wife Sally was the prodigious number and size of his charitable and political donations. Please dont tell your mother, he would say, she would have me committed. Social equality never had a more devoted and outspoken friend.

Michs desire to protect the world extended to his daily activities. He purchased from and invested in companies who shared his view of social responsibility. Mich was as an ardent recycler. He had a keen ability to spot scraps of paper that others might have placed in wrong receptacles. And Mich was an obsessive conservationist. He wore threadbare clothes long past the point of ridicule justified by his philosophy that hed never seen a garment that couldnt be worn one more day. Friendly conversations, whether with restaurant staff, sales people or anyone within his reach, would abruptly shift from genial and lighthearted banter to more weighty topics, always delivered with the fervent belief that if he could plant a seed another kindred soul would be moved to help change the world. Every time we crested a hill while traveling on vacation, Mich would suddenly begin counting billboards with growing outrage. Inevitably, he would write another letter to another governor complaining about the visual blight on the highway. His family teased Mich about his many crusades, but he marched onward determined to plant more seeds.

Mich was reflexively kind, profusely appreciative, generous and full of life. He possessed a talent for finding, cultivating, and expressing virtue in people perhaps unknown even to themselves. (To take just one example, he discovered a parking garage attendant reading Shakespeare for pleasure and soon hired her to an office job more suited to her ability.) He had a gift for contentment in lifes smallest pleasures. A single milk bottle discovered in a small antique store slowly became an expansive collection and a lifelong passion. He could pick up any of his hundreds of bottles that overflowed his office and recite all the details of the bottle and the antique store where he discovered it.

Mich was devoted to the people important to his life and extended that love for any place or entity that touched them. When Dell attended Stanford, Mich became the worlds biggest Stanford fan. He tracked all sports, whether men or women, including baseball, softball, football, basketball, tennis, swimming, golf, and more each with the same intensity. He could at any time recite the incoming Stanford commits of the next years athletic recruiting class. One of our familys traditions

was the celebratory phone call with Mich after a victory and reliving every detail. Rather than Christmas specials, our family would sometimes watch the 1990 Big Game and the winning field goal that

was the celebratory phone call with Mich after a victory and reliving every detail. Rather than Christmas specials, our family would sometimes watch the 1990 Big Game and the winning field goal that completed Stanfords miracle comeback over Cal. Likewise, when John started working with Expedia, he rushed to embrace its services with equal fervor. Michs special love even extended to his pets. He would never take a seat from his cat, Patty Sue. Instead, hed relocate himself to a less comfortable chair. And he would always heat up her food before serving, because he said, thats how I would like it.

Mich loved car trips, long and short, and would seek out antique stores, bakeries and ice cream shops for treasures along the way. At each stop, he would add more pastries to his ever growing emergency supply. And, miles down the road when he got caught sneaking a pastry, he would defend himself by arguing, This isnt an emergency? If he frequented a restaurant that caught his eye, he collected the business card and menu and added them to his growing collection. Whenever someone needed a recommendation in seemingly any town anywhere, Mich would pull out a handful of menus and point to his recommended item. You want to try something good, he would say, and then direct them to the cream horn, the chocolate clair, or some other delicacy. Given a choice between any important decision chocolate or strawberry, dinner or a movie, the northern route through Canada or the southern route through the Texas Panhandle, Mich would always find a way to choose both.

Mich cherished his association with the Unitarian Church because of its independent voice free from doctrine. He never expressed any definitive religious views but refused to let anyone characterize him as unreligious. He had an awe for life, an exhilaration for its possibilities, and boundless gratitude for its many gifts. He liked movies with messages of social hope and hidden strength: Shane, Hoosiers and A Christmas Carol were perennial favorites. He would sometimes say, You cant solve all the worlds problems, but you can buy a child an ice cream cone. And thats how he lived every day.

Above all else, Mich cherished and loved his family. He made us the center of his world. We never saw a moment of selfishness or vanity. He gave us everything. To know there's someone in the world like Mich is a blessing. To have shared his life is a gift beyond imagination. There could be no greater husband or father.