HSGL President Bill Castanier Receives Ingham County Heritage Award
Photo by Audrey Z. Martini, taken December 13, 2022 at the Ingham County Courthouse in Mason, MI. Pictured left to right: Jacob McCormick, HSGL trustee and Ingham County Historical Commission chair; Bill Castanier, HSGL president; State Representative Sarah Anthony, former HSGL trustee; and Jesse Lasorda, former HSGL trustee and former ICHC vice chair.
The Ingham County Historical Commission (ICHC) unanimously selected Bill Castanier, president of the Historical Society of Greater Lansing, as the recipient of the 2022 Ingham County Heritage Award. The award was presented to Castanier by Ingham County Historical Commission chair and HSGL trustee Jacob McCormick on Tuesday, December 13, 2022, during a meeting of the Ingham County Board of Commissioners at the historic Ingham County Courthouse in Mason, Michigan.
The Ingham County Heritage Award is given annually to residents of Ingham County for lifetime achievement in local history, recognition of a major local history-based project or activity, or any other historical basis as designated by the ICHC. The goal of the award, as given by the Ingham County Historical Commission, is to increase awareness of the work being done to preserve, protect, study, and educate on Ingham County’s rich history.
Castanier was nominated by former HSGL trustee and then-ICHC vice chair Jesse Lasorda for the award. He was chosen for accomplishment in two of the pillars of the award - lifetime achievement and recognition of a major project.
Bill Castanier has worked in communications, media, journalism, and thereby history for more than 50 years. He worked in the administration of Governor Jim Blanchard. In that period, in 1986 and 1987, Castanier was Deputy Director and Public Relations Director for the Michigan Sesquicentennial Commission, which was tasked with celebrating Michigan’s 150th birthday, which is still one of the largest history-based statewide celebrations ever held in Michigan.
In 2012, Castanier joined the board of the Historical Society of Greater Lansing as a trustee. That same year he was elevated to the vice presidency of the HSGL, a post in which he served for four years. In 2016, he took the reigns as president of the HSGL, a position he still holds today, a decade since joining the board for the first time.
As a journalist, Castanier often writes articles of a historical nature, including as a literary writer for the Lansing City Pulse.
The project for which he was recognized with the Heritage Award is “Pave the Way: The I-496 Project.” In collaboration with hundreds of volunteers and committed community historians, Castanier helped secure a National Park Service grant to formalize the storytelling of the displacement of a major African American community in Lansing in the 1960s with the development of I-496. Leading the HSGL through the Covid-19 pandemic while realizing major phases of this project, Castanier worked in stride with local history leaders Ken Turner and Adolph Burton. The team recorded more than 100 oral histories of the community impacted by I-496, now being compiled into a documentary. The HSGL and the “Pave the Way” project mounted an exhibit on the story of I-496 and the displaced community in the windows of the historic Knapp’s Department Store in Downtown Lansing, and countless community events, activities, and outreach helped bring the full story together.
Castanier adds to a long line of present and former Historical Society of Greater Lansing board members who have received the Ingham County Heritage Award. Previous HSGL-connected recipients include Eugene G. Wanger (2018), Craig A. Whitford (2020), and Valerie Marvin (2016).
Former Historical Society of Greater Lansing trustee (2010-2012), State Representative, and State Senator-Elect Sarah Anthony was in attendance at the Board of Commissioners meeting at which the award was presented and stopped for a photo with Castanier, McCormick, and Lasorda, following the presentation.
