Editor’s note: This month we welcome a new contributing writer to this publication. Many of you will recognize him if you frequented the Gloria Coles Flint Public Library over the past several years. Michael Madden has been a fixture in the genealogy room at the library for many years. Now retired, he still fills in from time to time. His knowledge of Flint history will help fill these pages moving forward and inform you of some things you did not know about the place you call home.
Having a major building in the Cultural Center named for you would be quite an honor.
Throw in a park, a major throughfare and you get Robert Thomas Longway.
He is a bit of a mystery man today but sixty-five years ago Longway was the president of the College and Cultural Center Development Committee of Sponsors raising money to build the institutions that line East Kearsley Street.
Longway came to Flint in 1907, one of many employees of the Weston-Mott Company that followed their boss, Charles Stewart Mott, westward from Ithaca, New York.
Longway worked as an accountant at Weston-Mott in Ithaca and took up the same role in Flint when the company relocated and repurposed.
In Ithaca, the firm made bicycle axles, in Flint they built axles for Buick.
Longway became the assistant treasurer of Weston-Mott in 1917 and assistant treasurer of the Buick Motor Car Company.
Mr. Mott sold his controlling shares in Weston-Mott in 1919 and the two companies merged.
Longway went to work for Buick and helped develop their records system, becoming assistant to the president for time, cost, and factory accounting.
By 1929 he had become a vice-president and assistant general manager. Longway retired from Buick in 1932 and worked in banking until 1942.
Retirement allowed Longway to become more deeply involved in community affairs.
He had long been a supporter of the YMCA, the YWCA, the IMA, Women’s Hospital, and the Flint Institute of Arts. He was an early member of the City of Flint Recreation and Parks Board.
Longway joined the Flint branch of the Urban League when it was founded and served on the board.
Women’s Hospital needed to raise money to help them grow and provide better care for women and children. Longway was on the committee of four who helped raise over $1 million for the construction of what is now McLaren Hospital.
Longway was a member of the Flint College and Cultural Development committee from its beginnings in May 1954 and named president in September.
General Motors donated $3 million to the fund in November and the committee began work raising an additional $9 million estimated to complete the project. The figure would later rise to $15 million and then $20 million as plans expanded.
The donations were to fund the original four buildings in the Cultural Center and at least three buildings for the new home of Flint Junior College.
In 1955 the project was expanded, and twelve buildings were planned.
The new Flint Public Library would anchor the west end of the development and would be paid for by a millage raised by the Flint School Board.
The committee decided that they would encourage local citizens to help support the program. Sponsorships would be a minimum of $25,000 and a carillon tower was planned to commemorate the donors.
The carillon was never built but large free-standing stone-faced monoliths were erected near the reflecting pool with the donor names inscribed on them.
Longway gave $100,000 to the fund, his wife, Irene, donated $50,000 and $25,000 was given in the names of each of the two Longway children.
The Longway family gift of $200,000 would be the equivalent of about $2.25 million today.
In 1956 the College and Cultural Center incorporated, and the incorporated group functioned alongside of the committee run by the Board of Education. Robert T. Longway was named president of both groups, a role he continued until November 1960.
The Flint School Board voted to honor Longway’s efforts and named the planetarium in the Cultural Center after him in February 1956.
The city named a park near Potter School after Longway in 1957 in recognition for his early service as a member of the Flint Recreation and Parks Board. In 1960 Longway gave the city $2,500 for picnic tables and playground improvements at the park.
In 1958 Flint named a ‘new’ east to west artery Robert T. Longway Boulevard. The only thing new about the street was its name. Robert T. Longway Boulevard was created from a union of parts of Burton Street and East Kearsley Street with a few adjustments for traffic flow.
This was considered a fitting tribute to Longway that the throughfare named in his honor was only a few blocks from the Cultural Center that he helped develop.
