Ishpeming native Ryan Buck, chairperson of Lansing Community College, speaks at LCC commencement exercises on May 11, 2017, at Michigan State University’s Breslin Center. Buck was elected chairperson of the college in January and has served on the LCC Board of Trustees since 2017. (Photo courtesy of Lansing Community College)
LANSING — If you’ve lived in the Upper Peninsula for even the shortest amount of time, you quickly come to realize the sense of community pride it carries as a region.
The U.P. is often one of the most forgotten places in the United States. It’s been mistakenly omitted from maps, called “just a bunch of forests” by a New York-based ticket sales company, and the only thing really connecting it to the rest of the state is the man-made engineering masterpiece known as the Mackinac Bridge.
Therefore, the U.P.’s residents always love a Yooper success story, and Ishpeming native Ryan Buck is one of them.
In January, Buck was elected as chairperson of the Lansing Community College Board of Trustees after serving as vice chairperson from 2019 to 2020 and as a trustee from 2017 to 2018.
Believe it or not, Buck’s newest gig is just a blip on the radar of what he’s made into an extraordinary career thus far.
Legislative assistant, research assistant, attorney at law, chief deputy clerk, you name it, it’s more than likely on Buck’s expansive resume.
Buck was born at Bell Memorial Hospital in Ishpeming in 1987. His father is a retired Cleveland-Cliffs employee while his mother has owned the popular Buck’s Party Store in Negaunee for more than three decades.
While he considers himself to be a native of Ishpeming, Buck spent a portion of his childhood living in Negaunee Township.
“Negaunee has a close place in my heart,” he said. “I was born at the original Bell Memorial Hospital in Ishpeming, but I grew up in Negaunee Township until second grade. My mom moved up to Ishpeming and that’s where I completed school and graduated high school. So, it feels like I have two hometowns. My mom owns Buck’s Party Store, I worked there in high school and part of college. Negaunee, Ishpeming and the traditions they both have there I feel are still a part of my life.”
Buck graduated from Ishpeming High School in 2006. The proud Hematite dual enrolled at Northern Michigan University during his senior year at IHS to earn college credit. Upon high school graduation, he went on to attend Central Michigan University, graduating in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and a minor in legal studies.
At the time, however, Buck wasn’t set on any particular career path.
“I wavered between being a doctor, a lawyer or a politician,” he said. “My major changed a boatload of times.”
Buck eventually landed an internship through CMU working for then-state Rep. Barb Byrum of the 67th District (Ingham County), serving as a legislative assistant for Byrum in the summer of 2009.
“I was brought down to Lansing twice a week from Mount Pleasant to do an internship with Barb Byrum,” Buck said. “I still work for (Byrum) now at my day job. That internship kind of led me to my adult job. When I was an intern for (Byrum), I was promoted to her legislative aide for the summer while one of her employees was on maternity leave. That’s where I really cut my teeth on the world of Michigan politics.”
Following the internship and schooling at CMU, Buck moved on to Michigan State University, graduating with a law degree in 2013. At that point, he decided to “put up a shingle.”
“I graduated (MSU) in 2013 with a doctorate, took the bar exam to become a licensed attorney in the state of Michigan, and then started a private practice for about a year,” Buck said. “When an attorney wants to go out on their own, it’s called ‘putting up a shingle.’ I put one up in East Lansing and focused on primary tax law, taxation matters, property tax, income tax, controversies with not only the IRS (Internal Revenue Service), but also the Michigan Department of Treasury.”
Nobody will argue that legal battles are headaches. Lawyers arguably have one of the toughest jobs in the world, and Buck’s goal in his days as a self-practicing attorney was simply to help people as much as he could. He recalled one of his proudest moments as a lawyer, which was helping a family stay off of the streets in Detroit.
“One of the most proud moments I had as a lawyer was representing a client who lived in the Detroit area and lived in deep poverty,” Buck said. “The only asset to her name was her home. Her daughter lived with her, but she didn’t have a job nor any opportunity to find one.
“When someone is in poverty like that, there is a part of Michigan tax law that allows exemptions to property tax. We were able to apply to that exemption, litigate that case in the Michigan Tax Tribunal, and prove that this impoverished person was not able to pay her property taxes. Because of that and because of her poverty level, she was able to keep her house.
“That’s only one client, but I think it’s one of my proudest moments, that I literally got someone off the streets.”
Buck operated his solo practice, Buck Law Firm, PLLC, from 2013 to 2014. He went on to work for the Ingham County Clerk’s Office where he remains today as the chief deputy court clerk, working under Byrum who is the county clerk.
So, how did Buck originally become involved with Lansing Community College?
“After I graduated law school in 2013, I entered the adult working world around that time,” Buck said. “I wanted to dedicate myself to getting my feet wet and building my career, and I had done so by 2016. I wanted to do something else. One thing my dad always taught me was to give back to the community that you live in. I was looking for some opportunities and a friend had suggested running for LCC trustee. I had lived near (the college) for six or seven years, thought about it, and having been in the political realm of the Lansing area, I decided to run a campaign. There were four of us running per seat, and I was able to secure one of those seats for a six-year term.”
According to stateuniversity.com, the college has an enrollment of 11,771 as of 2020, larger than that of several prominent public universities such as NMU, Michigan Tech, Saginaw Valley State and more. Of the 50 public or private colleges and universities in Michigan that report enrollment statistics, LCC holds the 16th largest enrollment in the state. Its main 42-acre campus sits two blocks from the state capitol.
“It’s all a matter of proportion,” Buck said. “NMU is smaller than LCC, but it’s also a vibrant part of Marquette and a part of the U.P. that provides a great economic impact. MSU is just down the road from (LCC), and we create a lot of partnerships with them. For example, come to LCC for two years, get your associate’s, then go straight to MSU and complete two or three more years there for your bachelor’s. Those kinds of relationships I think really highlight the power of community colleges.
“There’s not quite the same level of rivalry. I’m a CMU grad, so we obviously had a rivalry with Western (Michigan University). But, being in the community college world now, it’s more about opportunity and impact. A higher education credential is still a great modifier in life because despite where you started in life, you will be able to have a family-sustaining wage and a worthwhile career that will last for years to come.”
Buck’s duties on the board of trustees include management of faculty and staff, management of funding and more importantly over the last year and a half, management of health and safety for the campus community.
“The board is responsible for the governance of the college,” Buck said. “One of the biggest responsibilities the board has is for hiring, firing and/or evaluation of the president.”
That president is Dr. Steve Robinson, who began his tenure on July 20, 2020, in the middle of a time where the entire nation was still figuring out how to grapple with a global pandemic.
“We recently hired a new president, and he was integral in the whole (COVID-19) process,” Buck said. “Through that process, I really wanted to work with (Robinson) in a more direct role, not only to see how the college responded to the pandemic, but to learn the lessons of the pandemic as well.”
Buck served as a trustee for two years before being elected vice chair of the board, a stint that lasted another two years. He was elected to his current position as chair in January.
“It’s a huge opportunity and there are big shoes to fill from the prior chair,” Buck said. “But, I’ve been having a good time. We’ve been doing pretty good work trying to navigate the college through the pandemic. Ever since March 2020, we’ve been working on our emergency response. How are we doing to do the business of college education in an environment where you can’t be close to each other physically? Thankfully, just speaking for LCC, we’ve been able to avoid a lot of the controversy. Students and faculty have taken all of the restrictions with grace and understanding while they’re in place. We currently have a requirement for masking on campus for employees and students.
“When the pandemic first hit, it made everything virtual. A lot of fields of study that require in-person interaction such as medical fields or technical careers were paused for a bit. We slowly brought those back. We implemented screening protocols and masking, and how we cleaned our equipment or our facilities all and to be updated for the world we now live in.”
There’s no question Buck has experienced a lot throughout his career thus far. From multiple rounds of schooling, to an attorney at law, to the roles and volunteer organizations he serves in today. So, where does all of that determination to succeed come from? Buck said it comes right from his U.P. roots.
“Anything is possible,” he said. “I graduated from IHS in 2006. In our yearbook, the title of the yearbook was ‘There’s a Hematite in Every Crowd.’ I always remember where I came from. I might be a downstater now, I might be a troll now, but I still remember where I came from.
“It’s incredible the amount of people I meet that know of Ishpeming or Negaunee or have a family connection. We were at a service award ceremony at LCC, and a professor with more than 45 years of experience says to me ‘I went to Ishpeming High School.’ It was cool to meet another Hematite in the crowd.
“Growing up in the U.P. teaches you a certain level of grit, having that long-term work ethic towards a goal, not just a short-term goal. I think those who are growing up in the U.P., I can speak from my experience, those students are going to have a leg up on so many people by virtue of going to those (high) schools and living in those towns. I’m so thankful for my Yooper grit. If I could sum it up, it’s SISU. I know not everyone is Finnish, but there’s a Yooper grit that you just don’t see everywhere. I’m thankful for where I came from. Someday I’ll return home. The Lansing area is my home now, but I’m at home when I’m in the U.P.”
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