Larry Lindemer: Living Proof of How Serendipity and Hard Work Walk Hand in Hand

Larry Lindemer. The 96-year-old former Michigan Supreme Court Justice looks back on  watershed moments that affected his storied life.

by Roberta Ludtke

In 1921, three years after the end of World War I, Syracuse, New Yorkers George and Altamae Lindemer gave birth to son Lawrence. Now “Larry,” 96 years old and a former Michigan Supreme Court Justice, looks back on watershed moments that affected his storied life.

“My father, an optometrist, owned an optical and photo store,” Lindemer reported with a wry smile, “and my mother was a perpetual volunteer.”

The family spent summers on Skaneateles Lake south of Syracuse, and as luck would have it, a Cleveland, Ohio, family rented a cottage nearby. Along those shores, young Larry met Rebecca (“Becky”) Mead Gale, the woman who was to become his wife in 1940. Together, the couple would raise two sons, Lawrence B. Jr., now of Jackson, and David of Stockbridge.

Lindemer graduated from high school at age 16. He spent two years studying at Hamilton College in New York before transferring to the University of Michigan. He and wife Becky moved to her family Westfall Farm on M-106 outside Stockbridge in 1941 before he graduated from U of M with an A.B. Degree in 1943.

As Lindemer finished his degree, World War II was rocking the globe. Thinking he would be trained as a pilot, he joined the U.S. Army Air Force. Instead, Second Lieutenant Lindemer was shipped off to Fresno, California to work in cryptographic security. He saw no combat action during the war and spent his years at bases in Massachusetts and North Dakota, breaking codes to help win the war.

“The Air Force taught me to pay attention to detail,” Lindemer said, and then smiled ruefully, “and the ability to make a better bed.”

After returning from the war, he returned to the University of Michigan and completed his law degree in 1948. During 1946 to 1947 Becky and Larry bought a small barn in Gregory, had it moved to Mineral Springs Street in Stockbridge, and fashioned their small two-bedroom home. Larry managed to convince D&C storeowners to sell him the property behind their brick building, and there he built his law office. The block building stands today, housing H&R Block tax service.

Almost at once, Lindemer took an interest in politics. After serving as Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for Ingham County, he served in the state legislature and became active in Michigan’s Republican Party. Through this G.O.P. connection he met US Senator Homer Ferguson.

In 1953, when President Eisenhower established the Second Hoover Commission with its mission to recommend administrative changes in the executive branch of government, Ferguson recommended Lindemer for an appointment. Off the Lindemers moved to Silver Springs, Maryland. There Larry served on the Hoover Commission from 1953 until 1955.

As the commission was winding down, Lindemer became a partner in the Lansing law firm of Foster, Foster, Campbell & Lindemer. At the request of former President Hoover, he continued to work two days a week as special assistant to Hoover until the end of the political term.

Lindemer achieved an impressive career as a lawyer. Stockbridge resident Norm Topping, a dairy farmer, and 42 other dairy farmers hired him to help modify a proposal from the Department of Agriculture to make it more beneficial to dairy farming. This experience contributed to Lindemer’s ascent as an attorney. He was also chair of the Michigan Republican Party and served as Midwest Campaign Director for Nelson Rockefeller’s 1964 presidential campaign.

From 1962 to 1970, Lindemer served as Commissioner of the State Bar of Michigan, and in 1968 was appointed to the University of Michigan Board of Regents where he served until 1975. In that year, Governor William G. Milliken appointed him to the Michigan Supreme Court.

Lindemer served as a state supreme court justice until November 1976 when he lost his seat in the general election. He subsequently joined Consumers Power Company as vice-president general counsel.

Larry and Becky lived in Stockbridge most of their married lives until Becky’s death in 1991. “I’m proud of my 70-year membership in the Stockbridge Presbyterian Church,” Lindemer, who now lives in Silver Maples in Chelsea, said.

There on any given Sunday in the past, attendees would have seen him singing in the choir and sporting a snappy bow tie. As one of the founders of the Stockbridge Area Arts Council, he helped raise funds to start the council and donated monies to purchase a baby grand piano in Becky’s memory.

Perhaps an appropriate tune would be “Sweet Serendipity.”