Building Legacies
Ella Koeze Weed Living Center
There are 11 suite-style living centers named for Grand Valley Board of Trustees members Richard M. DeVos, Icie Macy Hoobler, Paul A. Johnson, William A. Kirkpatrick, Arnold C. Ott, Robert C. Pew, William F. Pickard, Bill & Sally Seidman, Dale Stafford, Maxine M. Swanson, and Ella Koeze Weed. All the buildings are divided into suites consisting of two double-bed rooms and a bath.
Republican leader Ella Koeze Weed was born July 25, 1905 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She graduated from Grand Rapids South High School and Davenport Business College and remained a lifelong area resident. Ella Weed married Albert Koeze in 1933 and managed a successful peanut butter factory with him. Albert Koeze passed away in 1966, and Ella married Harold Weed in 1973. She entered politics as a precinct worker in Wyoming Township in 1940, and remained a major presence in the Republican political scene throughout her life, eventually being named national committeewoman. She has been called a frontrunner for all women to follow in politics. In 1961 Weed was elected to Michigan's Constitutional Convention, and in 1971 was appointed chairman of the National Alliance of Businessmen. She formed and maintained close friendships with such influential Republicans as President Gerald R. Ford and his wife and former governor George Romney. Weed was also extremely dedicated to Grand Valley, serving on the board of control from 1967 to 1981, and also taking occasional classes. "I love the school partly because I learn so much from the kids," she said. "They are so far ahead of where I was at their age." She died in 1986, and Grand Valley's Weed Living Center, built in 1987, is named in her honor.
The Koeze-Weed Living Center houses 46 first year residence in the Women in Science & Engineering program -WISE.
For more information regarding housing on campus, click here.
Page last modified December 12, 2012
