Ken and Alice Pickering

Ken and Alice Pickering were both born in Washington, Pennsylvania. Ken was born in 1925 and volunteered for the US Army Air Corp in 1943 while in High School. Two years in the service qualified Ken for the GI Bill. After Ken graduated from Penn State, these two young married high school sweethearts moved to Michigan in 1949. Ken then began a 40-year career with General Motors earning an MBA from Michigan State along the way. He began his work with GM at Fisher Body with later assignments at Corporate Staff and Pontiac but spent most of his time with the GM Design Staff where he retired in 1989 as Executive Director. Ken and Alice moved to the Traverse City area in 1996. Ken has been active with NMC Extended Education as a student, teacher, and a member of the EE Advisory Committee. Ken has a keen interest in photography, watercolor painting, digital graphics, and computers and has also taken additional NMC classes in each of these areas. Ken has been a widower since 2004 and is blessed with two children, four grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. His two children, who live in Royal Oak, Michigan, are also now retired.

Said Ken about why he established this scholarship, “WWII and the GI Bill changed my life forever. The GI Bill permitted me to attend college and earn a BSME and later an MBA. As a result, I was not destined to a life as a factory worker in a small Pennsylvania town but was able to move to Michigan and retire as a senior executive of a major automobile company. This has permitted me to send my two children to college and do the primary funding for the college education of four grandchildren. I hope that I now can assist other bright and motivated students at NMC to change their life in the same positive way.”