S
ociety President Joseph J. Gavin joined the Board in April 2019 and that winter, he wrote an article on Michigan’s first chief justice, William Asa Fletcher.
In 2022, Joe was elected treasurer and, two years later, president of the Society. Joe leads the Society with good humor and quiet confidence. A gifted orator, Joe has given two presentations for the Historical Society of Michigan’s History Hounds program, highlighting several of the state’s verdicts of history.
After graduating from Hope College (2001) and Michigan State University College of Law (2005), Joe settled in West Michigan permanently, where he is a member of the Miller Johnson Firm in Grand Rapids. Despite an incredibly active practice as a member of the firm’s healthcare reimbursement practice group, Joe is highly involved in his community, both local and legal. In short, he is a member of the Grand Rapids Bar Association, State Bar of Michigan, Federal Bar Association, and American Bar Association, along with board serve with Alternative Directions, “a Kent County-based program that serves MDOC Probationers and Parolees in leading successful, crime-free lives in their communities.”
He lives with his wife and three children in West Michigan.