William Cochran

William J. Cochran

East Lansing

William J. Cochran, 92, of East Lansing, Michigan died on Saturday, February 14, 2015.  He was born on August 16, 1922, in Hancock, Michigan, son of the William D. Cochran and Gladys Strobel Cochran.  Bill graduated from Iron Mountain, MI High School in 1940.  He served in US Army in the Transportation Corps in the European Theater of Operations from 1942-1946.  He retired from the US Army Reserves in 1966 as a lieutenant colonel. Bill received a BA from the University of Michigan Business School in 1947, where he met and married Marilyn Holmquist in 1952. He then returned to Iron Mountain where he owned and operated Cochran Motors, a GM automobile and truck dealership and was on the Board of Directors of Commercial National Bank until 1959. In 1959, he returned to the University of Michigan Business School where he received his MBA (finance).  After working for American Cement in Los Angeles and Detroit, he served as Vice President of Business Research Corp. in Birmingham, MI.  In 1966 he began his tenure with the Michigan Department of Commerce where he eventually served as Director of the International Division of the Office of Economic Expansion. He then served as Executive Director of both the Michigan Economic Action Council and the Michigan Job Development Authority.  From 1986-1991 he was a securities broker from First of Michigan, East Lansing, MI. Bill was an original member of the Mackinac Bridge Authority serving 16 years. He was appointed by G. Mennen Williams and reappointed by Governors Milliken, Swainson, Romney and Engler. He was the last surviving member of the original Bridge Authority and celebrated the 50th anniversary of the opening of the bridge in 2007. Bill loved history and genealogy and was particularly interested in the Upper Peninsula where he visited every summer. Bill and his wife also loved international travel and skiing. He was a docent at the Michigan Historical Museum and was an active and supporting member of the Rotary.

Bill was preceded in death by his wife Marilyn in August 2014.  He is survived by his sister Nancy Major (Ann Arbor) and her two daughters, his nieces, Susan Major and Marcia Major, (Ann Arbor), and two grandnieces Whitney McGoram (Detroit) and Victoria Veit (Ann Arbor).

Arrangements, Muehlig Funeral Chapel, Ann Arbor.