James J. Couzens

James Joseph Couzens (August 26, 1872 – October 22, 1936) was an American businessman, politician and philanthropist. He served as mayor of Detroit (1919–1922) and U.S. senator from Michigan (1922–1936). Prior to entering politics he served as vice president and general manager of the Ford Motor Company.

Early life and career Couzens was born in Chatham, Ontario, Canada in 1872, the son of soapmaker James and Emma Clift Couzens. He attended the public schools of Chatham and spent time at a business college. He moved to Detroit, Michigan in 1890 and worked as a railroad car checker for the New York Central Railroad from 1890 to 1897. born in 1902; Madeline, born in 1904; Margo, born in 1910, and Edith, born in 1911.

Detroit work and political career James Couzens was president of the Bank of Detroit and director of the Detroit Trust Company.

Philanthropy Couzens established the Children's Fund of Michigan with a $10,000,000 grant. He also gave $1,000,000 for relief in Detroit and began a fund to make loans to the physically handicapped. Under Dr Frank Norton, Dr Kenneth Richard Gibson and their secretary, Kathryn Hutchison, the Children's Fund, among other things, provided free health and dental work for indigent Detroit children. The Fund was set up with a 25-year life span, and the project ended in the mid-1950s.

In response to the Bath School Disaster, in which Andrew Kehoe, an embittered school board member and treasurer, killed 38 children by blowing up explosives he had planted in the basement of the Bath Consolidated School in Bath Township, Michigan, Couzens gave $75,000 to fund rebuilding. The new school was dedicated as the "James Couzens Agricultural School".

He donated $600,000 to the University of Michigan for the building of a residence hall for female nursing students, near the University hospital and medical campus. It was named Couzens Hall in his honor. He also donated money to build a nurses’ home at the Farrand Training School in Detroit, a nurses’ training school associated with Harper Hospital. The building was completed in 1922, and at his request, the Board of Trustees named the new home McLaughlin Hall in honor of Emily A. McLaughlin, Principal of the Farrand Training School.

In the 1930s, Couzens donated $1 million to Children's Hospital of Michigan, in response to a birthday request from his wife for "a simple box in which to keep my pearls". Couzens complied, including a note within the box describing the $1 million gift, stating "My dear, your new pearls will be all the children who are eventually treated there". Today, Children's Hospital of Michigan is part of the Detroit Medical Center.

Disturbed by the failures of low-income housing projects that came out of the depression, he funded an alternative. He contributed $550,000 of his own personal money, combined with $300,000 from Oakland Housing, to create a managed low-income housing project called Westacres, in West Bloomfield, Michigan. The project gave the low-income factory working man a chance to own a home. The homes were located on 1 acre of land and the owners were required to farm the land to provide food for their families when seasonal layoffs took place.

Miscellaneous Asked how to say his name, he told The Literary Digest: "Pronounced exactly as cousins."

On November 9, 1937, just over a year after his death, the Detroit City Council led by Mayor Frank Couzens—James Couzens' son—voted to rename the portion of Northwestern Highway in Detroit, which then began at Wyoming Avenue and continued into Oakland County, after James Couzens. (The segment of Northwestern Highway in Oakland County was not renamed, however.) When the John C. Lodge Freeway was extended from its terminus at Wyoming Avenue northwesterly along the route of James Couzens Highway–Northwestern Highway in the 1960s, the Lodge name was extended along the new freeway segment, while the freeway's service drives between Wyoming Avenue and Eight Mile Road (M-102) retained the James Couzens name.