David Hollister

Hollister's death at the age of 84 was reported on 23 September 2026. A specific cause and place of death were not detailed in initial WILX coverage. Mayor Andy Schor issued a statement calling him inseparable from Lansing's modern identity and crediting him with keeping GM, bringing minor-league baseball, creating the Stadium District, and starting work toward a new City Hall and performing arts centre. Funeral arrangements had not been announced in the first reports.

David C. Hollister was born on 3 April 1942 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and grew up in Battle Creek, where he graduated from Battle Creek Central High School. He earned both a bachelor's and a master's degree from Michigan State University, an institution that remained tied to his civic work for the rest of his life, including through Prima Civitas and the donation of his papers to the MSU Archives.

Hollister served on the Ingham County Board of Commissioners from 1969 to 1974, then represented Lansing in the Michigan House of Representatives from 1975 to 1993. Colleagues and later tributes associated him with the state's Open Meetings Act, its mandatory seatbelt law and right-to-die legislation that helped expand hospice care. Mayor Andy Schor later said that in the House Hollister "fought for all Michiganders, especially those most in need."

Elected mayor in 1993, Hollister served until 2003. His administration's defining fight was to keep General Motors building cars in Lansing after the company signalled it would not renew aging plants. Working with labor, business and university partners, he helped bring the Grand River Assembly Plant downtown and a replacement for Lansing Car Assembly, preserving thousands of jobs. He also backed the Lansing Lugnuts ballpark (now Cooley Law School Stadium) and pressed downtown and Old Town revitalisation. The Keep GM story became the documentary and McGraw-Hill book Second Shift.

In 2003 Hollister left City Hall for Governor Jennifer Granholm's cabinet as director of the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth. In 2005 he was recruited to lead Prima Civitas, a regional economic development organisation funded by Michigan State University and the Lansing and East Lansing governments. He later mentored Mayor Andy Schor and remained a go-to voice on charter reform and regional strategy.

Diagnosed with Parkinson's around 2000 while still mayor, Hollister lived with the disease for more than thirty years. In a 2024 WILX interview he described a routine of medication several times a day, a strict diet and long walks with his wife Christine, and spoke of taking up cartooning as a creative outlet. He and Christine typically logged thousands of steps a day. He is survived by Christine and by his son Robert.