Bouquet

We are the granddaughter and great-grandchildren of Medio J. Bacco, and we wish to commend and thank Ed McBroom for advocating to designate the portion of U.S. 8 from the Michigan-Wisconsin border to its intersection with U.S. 2 in Norway as the “Medio J. Bacco Memorial Highway.”

While our grandfather (great-grandfather) paved this section of roadway — one of the first paved highways in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula — and later built a successful business in road construction, aggregate production, and related industries, we believe he would most want to be remembered as one of the Upper Peninsula’s earliest philanthropists.

Beginning in the early 1930s, during the depths of the Great Depression, our grandfather quietly helped friends and relatives pursue higher education by paying their college tuition. He did so without fanfare and with the belief that education could transform lives.

After retiring in the 1940s, he established the Medio J. Bacco Scholarship Fund at Iron Mountain High School. The scholarship provided up to four years of financial assistance to deserving graduates pursuing studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This year marks the 77th consecutive year that the scholarship has been awarded, benefiting well over 200 students.

The Medio J. Bacco Scholarship was the first scholarship established for high school graduates in our area. In the years that followed, it became a model for numerous scholarship programs at Iron Mountain High School and throughout neighboring communities. Today, because of the example our grandfather set, virtually every local high school graduate pursuing higher education or technical training has access to some form of scholarship assistance.

We would also like to extend a special “shout out” and our sincere thanks to cousin Bill Verrette for his tireless efforts in securing this well-deserved recognition for his uncle, Medio J. Bacco.

This highway designation appropriately honors not only a successful businessman and builder of critical infrastructure, but also a man whose generosity and commitment to education have benefited generations of families throughout our region.

Leslie W. Buchanan

Florence, Wis.

Granddaughter of Medio J. Bacco

Katie B. Reynolds and Thomas B. Buchanan

Great-grandchildren of Medio J. Bacco