30 years ago

MARQUETTE — A group calling for the reorganization of the Marquette General Hospital Board of Trustees is now focusing on specific individuals, accusing the facility of nepotism. In written materials handed out and reviewed at a public meeting in Marquette Monday, members of U.P. CHOICE (Citizens for a regional Hospital with Organizational Integrity, Community Caring and Ethics) said “there are currently two father-son combinations on the current Board of Trustees. The daughter of the administrator is in a key management position.” Specific names were not used. Father-son combinations on the board are longtime board members Ellwood Mattson and Harlan Larson and their sons, Steve Mattson and Tim Larson. Laurie Neldberg-Weesen, daughter of MGH Chief Executive Officer/Administrator Robert Neldberg, is MGH director of Marketing and Community Relations. Robert Raica, MGH vice president for Community Relations, denied that MGH’s policy on nepotism has been violated, adding that about 300 of the facility’s 2,000 workers are related to each other. “The board has a superb track record of responsible leadership. That speaks for itself,” Raica said. The U.P. CHOICE meeting drew a public audience of only four local residents.

60 years ago

HOUGHTON — District Geologist Joseph L. Patrick of Copper Range Co. has announced that Senior Staff Geologist John Fritts has been assigned the responsibility for exploration of the Portage Lake lava series. The change in assignment is part of Copper Range Co.’s expanded geology and exploration program. Fritts was formerly responsible for White Pine mine geology and grade control. The lava series underlies the Nonesuch Shale, on which the White Pine mine is located, and is separated from it by 1,000 to 3,000 feet of Copper Harbor formation. It is characterized by the hard volcanic rocks which form the backbone of the Keweenaw Peninsula, and it is within these rocks that many of the great mines of the Copper Country have existed. Fritts’ actual area of jurisdiction extends from Portage Lake on the northeast to Mellen, Wis., on the southwest. A native of San Diego, Calif., and a 1952 graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a B.S. in geology, Fritts has been employed in the White Pine geology department since early 1956, after spending four years at a lead-zinc project in the state of Washington.