Brilliant Local Historian, Elizabeth Neumeyer

I hope folks in Battle Creek realize how lucky they are to have such an amazing citizen as Elizabeth Neumeyer.

“Liz”  first came to town in 1968 to teach American, Michigan and local history just a few years after Kellogg Community College began.

She is a very educated lady, for she earned not one but three Masters Degrees, one from Central Michigan, in history, and two from Western Michigan University, one in  counseling and one in communication. These two later degrees she achieved while doing full-time teaching.

In addition to being a professor for many years, she was a long-time member of the Board of Directors of the Historical Society of Battle Creek and helped start Heritage Battle Creek Journal back in 1991.

She also wrote books while teaching. One very impressive one, for example, is  called “Mother: Ella Eaton Kellogg,” about the wife of the famous John Harvey Kellogg. The book is almost 100 pages long and contains some great photographs of the Kellogg homes and family.

Ella and her husband not only adopted 11 children but also raised more than 30 others over the years. Liz even includes a list of all of the children, including their names, ages and brief remarks about their adult lives.

She also explains how the Kelloggs founded the Haskell Home for Orphans which nurtured 150 to 200 children each year. As though all of this work with children weren’t sufficient, they also ran classes for mothers of kindergartners and helped supervise the children’s play and development.

Part of the reason for writing that book was in order to succeed in getting Ella into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame through the Battle Creek Historical Society.

Though she has formally retired, Liz seems to be just about as busy now as ever.

Together with another really hardworking, devoted Battle Creek  citizen, Mary Butler, Liz works many hours a week studying and writing about local history for the Heritage Battle Creek Journal.

In addition, the two of them teach classes on local history for the Institute for Learning in Retirement.

She and Mary, together with some local teachers, won a Michigan Historical Society Education Programming award for a series about education here in town.

Liz also writes a monthly column for Scene Magazine on the origin of street and road names in the Battle Creek area and holds a monthly history roundtable at Northpointe Woods where she can learn even more about Battle Creek from its many senior citizens.

Just recently Elizabeth was asked by KCC to work with Marty Stilwell, the Learning Resource Center director, and Mark O'Connell, the Vice President of finance, on a history of the school for the college’s 60th anniversary in 2016, continuing from the one Dr. Neva Bartel did from 1956 to 1986.

Matthew Samra, one of Liz’s former students, now teaches English at KCC. As he says, "We co-taught many courses together at KCC, and I was always impressed by her breadth of knowledge. If you were enrolled in her history course, you can bet you'd be exposed to some sociology, literature, and psychology along the way - among with other rich, interdisciplinary subjects."

I have even been privileged to have this brilliant and entertaining student and friend in several of my ILR classes.

Thank you, Liz, for all you do for us all.

If you want to read more about local history, you can go to www.heritagebattlecreek.org.