By Zachary Gorchow
Executive Editor and Publisher
Posted: February 7, 2017 11:34 AM

The Department of State Police turns 100 this year, and its rich history is getting a fresh look with some troopers riding in vintage-looking vehicles and wearing old school campaign hats.

At the conclusion of a recent interview with State Police Director Kriste Etue, I asked the age-old questions reporters ask those they interview if there was anything we hadn’t covered she wanted to discuss. And the colonel was eager to discuss the department’s centennial, specifically the first head of the department, Roy Vandercook.

So who was Mr. Vandercook, appointed in 1917 by then-Governor Albert Sleeper to head up what was then called the Michigan State Troops Permanent Force?

Thanks to State Police archivists, there’s some pretty thorough detail about Mr. Vandercook, a Mason native.

At the time, he was public relations manager for the Pere Marquette Railroad. Yes, apparently public relations positions existed in 1917, and that makes sense given the primacy of newspapers across the country at this time. And probably most pertinent to the appointment, he had served as the full-time adjutant general of the Michigan National Guard in 1912 before retiring in 1915 to take the P.R. gig.

But before those roles, Mr. Vandercook was a reporter. As a young man, he had worked for a local newspaper, presumably in or near Mason while serving as a member of the state militia before two terms as the Mason city clerk. He volunteered as an infantry private with the Michigan regiment in the Spanish-American War.

Upon returning to Michigan, Mr. Vandercook became a reporter for the Lansing State Journal before becoming the first resident Capitol correspondent for the Associated Press in Lansing. All this time, he remained active in the Michigan National Guard before eventually leaving the reporting ranks to lead the Guard.

Mr. Vandercook was able to establish the nascent State Police upon his appointment until he resigned in 1920. And upon resigning, where did Mr. Vandercook go? Back to the National Guard? No. Back to public relations? Did he start a multiclient lobbying firm with powerhouse clients like the railroads and oil companies? Nope.

Mr. Vandercook returned to the AP as its Capitol correspondent.

It did not take. In 1921, then-Governor Alex Groesbeck, reorganizing the State Police, appointed Mr. Vandercook as the first commissioner of the Department of Public Safety where he served for two years.

It’s not what would constitute a typical journalistic career path today, working on the high school newspaper, getting a journalism degree and working for the college newspaper or other news outlet at the university, getting a professional internship, hooking on with the Tinytown Daily Bugle writing obituaries and then working your way up to write for a major international news outlet like Gongwer News Service.

But, oh my, imagine the sources Mr. Vandercook had when he returned to the AP in 1920. How he handled covering his old boss, Mr. Sleeper, for the remaining time Mr. Sleeper was governor (he did not seek re-election in 1920), I do not know. Hopefully, he did so without fear or favor and collected some good tips along the way.

The State Police historian wrote of Mr. Vandercook’s essential role in establishing the department, “Some criticized Vandercook’s blatant lobbying on behalf of his state trooper force, but the department’s survival was due in no small part to his talents and connections as a journalist and lobbyist.”

Reporter-Spokesperson-Solider-Lobbyist-Colonel. That’s a not a resume anyone is likely to find on LinkedIn nowadays.