EAST LANSING, MI - For 33 years of marriage, Peter McPherson knew his wife Joanne as someone with “a lot of spunk.”
The former Michigan State president spent one of those three decades with his wife as president of Michigan State University, serving from 1993 to 2005. He loved her determination to accomplish things she wanted, he said.
Joanne McPherson died June 23 at age 75. Her loss leaves an “enormous hole” in McPherson’s world, he said, but it provides an opportunity to honor her and one of her lasting legacies at MSU -- the university’s first domestic violence shelter.
She founded Safe Place in 1995 to provide support for victims of domestic violence and stalking. In lieu of sending flowers for her funeral, her family requests donations be made to the shelter online or by mail to MSU Safe Place, Attn: Holly Rosen, 166 Service Road, Room 113A, East Lansing, MI 48824.
Officials requested that checks be made out to Michigan State University and that MSU Safe Place be written in the check memo line
“The things she did for Safe Place was enormous,” McPherson said, “and it’s not just in her memory that money is given, but it really is for the services she helped create.”
Joanne McPherson was first inspired to create a shelter early in her time as “First Lady” at MSU, her husband said. She was talking to an MSU police officer escorting the couple back from the airport about how to improve the lives of students, and the officer told her about the lack of services for domestic violence survivors.
“While it was her initial idea and her drive, it became very much of a large group project,” McPherson said, adding that his wife took advice from survivors, administrative staff, faculty, students, police and more.
“It became an immediate, short-term shelter that protects people on Michigan State’s campus,” he said, noting that he thinks domestic violence is a problem across college campuses that needs to be solved.
Safe Place offers temporary shelter for survivors and their children, as well as advocacy, support and counseling services, according to the MSU release. It also provides education to help end stalking and interpersonal violence, the release states.
For the shelter’s 25th anniversary, the McPhersons gifted $50,000 to create an endowment for Safe Place. Their lifetime donations to MSU exceed $100,000, officials said.
“Joanne is the reason we have a relationship violence and stalking shelter and support program on our campus today,” said MSU Safe Place Director Holly Rosen. “I have always valued her compassion and commitment to meet the needs of our campus community and her ability to bring together donors and campus partners to create the program that exists today.”
Born in 1946 in Washington D.C., Joanne McPherson was also awarded the Honorary Alumni Award from the MSU Alumni Association in the late 1990s.
“Joanne’s contributions to MSU will not be forgotten,” said MSU Board of Trustees Chairperson Dianne Byrum. “Her work advocating for domestic abuse survivors and needed resources showed tremendous leadership, and we can’t thank her and Peter enough for their ongoing support of this great university.”
The appreciation for Joanne McPherson goes beyond Safe Place. Multiple MSU officials honored her after news of her death broke.
“She will be greatly missed,” Rosen said. “My heart goes out to her family and to all the lives she has touched.”
“Joanne was a remarkable woman who loved this university very deeply,” said current MSU President Samuel Stanley.
For her husband, her loss is still so fresh that he does not know if he “will ever get over it,” he said. For now, he remembers the “spunky” love of his life.
“I loved this woman,” he said. “What a happy person.”
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