PERSON: Ken Siver
Employer
Southfield
Position
Mayor
Biography
Ken Siver is a true Southfield enthusiast. He cares deeply about the city and its people. For 48 years Siver has been an active member of the Southfield community. He is the author of four books on Southfield and knows the community very well. In 1967 after graduating from Oakland University, he moved to Southfield because of its progressive public school system.
A history and English major at Oakland, he was hired to teach those subjects at Thompson Junior High School. “Right from the start, I loved living and working in Southfield,” Siver said. “As a teacher, I was particularly impressed with the high value the community placed on education. As a resident, I was awed by how forward-thinking city leaders were.”
He began advising the student newspaper and yearbook at Thompson, while pursuing a Masters degree in social science and certification in journalism education. From 1977 to 1986 Siver taught journalism at Southfield High School and advised the student newspaper, the JAY. The student publications he advised received a host of awards.
His first involvement in civic affairs was to join Southfield’s active environmental movement. At Thompson he organized student participation in the city’s first Earth Day observance and Arbor Day activities. He organized a newspaper recycling program in his apartment building. After moving to Magnolia Neighborhood in 1972 and joining the neighborhood association, he continued to organize environmental activities including a tree planting program and efforts to fight Dutch Elm disease.
During his early years in the community Siver worked with many of Southfield’s “founding fathers” and first elected officials including Fred Leonhard, Wardley McMaster, Emanuel Christiansen, Leo Walton, Pat Flannery, Will Oliver, Mark Rehbine and Jean McDonnell and worked with many veteran teachers and administrators in the Southfield Schools. He enjoyed hearing their stories and learning of their experiences in Southfield during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. He began collecting Southfield memorabilia, artifacts and photographs as older school staff retired and neighbors moved away.
For his doctoral dissertation at Wayne State University Siver chose to write a historical study of the changes that took place in American public education following World War II, employing Southfield as a case study. Upon earning his doctorate in educational administration in 1986 he rewrote his dissertation as a local history. The result was Southfield Faces the Crucial Decades: The Development of a Suburb & its School System in the Years Following World War II.
“I was really struck by how fully Southfield mirrored the profound changes in American life and public education that had occurred following the world war,” Siver said. “Because Southfield was experiencing explosive growth, virtually every aspect of ‘progress’ and the social forces of the era were present in this new city. The freeways, TV towers, home shows, Northland Mall, the Nike Missile Base, bomb shelters were among the symbols of the era.”
In 1996 Siver wrote A Brief History of Southfield, intended as a primer for elementary and secondary students on the history of their community. This work also included an abridged transcription of the Southfield Township records covering 1831 to 1851. Twelve years later he authored Southfield: The History of Our City in its 50th Year. As a member of the committee planning Southfield’s 50th anniversary observances Siver wrote the text, took many of the photos and designed the edition. In 2014 he edited and designed The Drum Major Beat: The Audacity to Make a Difference. This work commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Southfield Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Task Force, Inc. and delineates how the Task Force has kept Dr. King’s “dream” alive in Southfield. Siver is a charter member of the MLK Task Force.
Over the decades the Siver has served on numerous city committees and has been active in a many of community organizations. In 1977 he was appointed to organize the school district’s community relations program. In 1986, he was named Director of Information Services for Southfield Public Schools and in 2004, Deputy Superintendent. That year his duties were expanded from public relations and communications to oversight of pupil registration, buildings & grounds, student transportation and food service.
At the same time his civic activism increased. He joined the board of the Magnolia Neighborhood Association in 1974. A past president of the Magnolia Association, Siver has served as treasurer and membership chair since 1995. In the 1980s he joined the South Oakland NAACP, the Southfield Historical Society and the newly created Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Task Force. At one time he served as president of the latter two organizations.
Meanwhile, in 2001 he was elected to the Southfield City Council and re-elected in 2005, 2009 and 2013 to his second, third and fourth, four-year terms. Because of his deep concern for neighborhood vitality, the majority of his years of City Council he chaired the Neighborhood Services Committee. He also frequently was a member of the Board & Commission Committee. In 2010, concerned with the living conditions in the city’s three, low-income senior apartment buildings, Siver began serving on the Southfield Non-Profit Housing Board. (He currently is the President of the Southfield Non-Profit Housing Board.) As a result the apartments are now operating in the black and millions of dollars in building upgrades will begin in 2015. In the course of his years of service to the schools and city Siver has worked, in one capacity or another, with the vast majority of Southfield’s elected and appointed officials.
— kensiver4mayor.com
A history and English major at Oakland, he was hired to teach those subjects at Thompson Junior High School. “Right from the start, I loved living and working in Southfield,” Siver said. “As a teacher, I was particularly impressed with the high value the community placed on education. As a resident, I was awed by how forward-thinking city leaders were.”
He began advising the student newspaper and yearbook at Thompson, while pursuing a Masters degree in social science and certification in journalism education. From 1977 to 1986 Siver taught journalism at Southfield High School and advised the student newspaper, the JAY. The student publications he advised received a host of awards.
His first involvement in civic affairs was to join Southfield’s active environmental movement. At Thompson he organized student participation in the city’s first Earth Day observance and Arbor Day activities. He organized a newspaper recycling program in his apartment building. After moving to Magnolia Neighborhood in 1972 and joining the neighborhood association, he continued to organize environmental activities including a tree planting program and efforts to fight Dutch Elm disease.
During his early years in the community Siver worked with many of Southfield’s “founding fathers” and first elected officials including Fred Leonhard, Wardley McMaster, Emanuel Christiansen, Leo Walton, Pat Flannery, Will Oliver, Mark Rehbine and Jean McDonnell and worked with many veteran teachers and administrators in the Southfield Schools. He enjoyed hearing their stories and learning of their experiences in Southfield during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. He began collecting Southfield memorabilia, artifacts and photographs as older school staff retired and neighbors moved away.
For his doctoral dissertation at Wayne State University Siver chose to write a historical study of the changes that took place in American public education following World War II, employing Southfield as a case study. Upon earning his doctorate in educational administration in 1986 he rewrote his dissertation as a local history. The result was Southfield Faces the Crucial Decades: The Development of a Suburb & its School System in the Years Following World War II.
“I was really struck by how fully Southfield mirrored the profound changes in American life and public education that had occurred following the world war,” Siver said. “Because Southfield was experiencing explosive growth, virtually every aspect of ‘progress’ and the social forces of the era were present in this new city. The freeways, TV towers, home shows, Northland Mall, the Nike Missile Base, bomb shelters were among the symbols of the era.”
In 1996 Siver wrote A Brief History of Southfield, intended as a primer for elementary and secondary students on the history of their community. This work also included an abridged transcription of the Southfield Township records covering 1831 to 1851. Twelve years later he authored Southfield: The History of Our City in its 50th Year. As a member of the committee planning Southfield’s 50th anniversary observances Siver wrote the text, took many of the photos and designed the edition. In 2014 he edited and designed The Drum Major Beat: The Audacity to Make a Difference. This work commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Southfield Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Task Force, Inc. and delineates how the Task Force has kept Dr. King’s “dream” alive in Southfield. Siver is a charter member of the MLK Task Force.
Over the decades the Siver has served on numerous city committees and has been active in a many of community organizations. In 1977 he was appointed to organize the school district’s community relations program. In 1986, he was named Director of Information Services for Southfield Public Schools and in 2004, Deputy Superintendent. That year his duties were expanded from public relations and communications to oversight of pupil registration, buildings & grounds, student transportation and food service.
At the same time his civic activism increased. He joined the board of the Magnolia Neighborhood Association in 1974. A past president of the Magnolia Association, Siver has served as treasurer and membership chair since 1995. In the 1980s he joined the South Oakland NAACP, the Southfield Historical Society and the newly created Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Task Force. At one time he served as president of the latter two organizations.
Meanwhile, in 2001 he was elected to the Southfield City Council and re-elected in 2005, 2009 and 2013 to his second, third and fourth, four-year terms. Because of his deep concern for neighborhood vitality, the majority of his years of City Council he chaired the Neighborhood Services Committee. He also frequently was a member of the Board & Commission Committee. In 2010, concerned with the living conditions in the city’s three, low-income senior apartment buildings, Siver began serving on the Southfield Non-Profit Housing Board. (He currently is the President of the Southfield Non-Profit Housing Board.) As a result the apartments are now operating in the black and millions of dollars in building upgrades will begin in 2015. In the course of his years of service to the schools and city Siver has worked, in one capacity or another, with the vast majority of Southfield’s elected and appointed officials.
— kensiver4mayor.com
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