Judge of Character: Kathleen McCann, ’73, Follows in Father’s Footsteps as District Judge
Written by Doug Goodnough
Her parents and uncle all attended Hillsdale College, so when it was time to choose a college, Kathleen McCann, ’73, naturally chose Michigan State University.
The year 1968 was a time of rebellion, and McCann said she was part of the generation who was protesting the Vietnam War and thought Michigan State was the place to be.
“Several of my high school buddies were killed in Vietnam, so I was all about protesting the war at that point,” she said.
Protesting was one thing. However, when she called her father, James, ’50, who was a Michigan District Court Judge, asking if she could try smoking marijuana like the rest of her classmates, the response was swift.
“In 57 minutes, he came from Livonia and was in my dorm room,” McCann recalled. “He said, ‘get out of those hippie jeans and put on that linen dress. We’re going out to dinner.’”
Once at dinner, her father gave her some advice that changed not only the course of her college career, but her life.
“He said, ‘I’m going to tell you something,’” she said. “’The choices you make now are going to be the choices that determine your place in life. If you choose wrong, it’s going to impact your ability to make those choices. And I know what you are capable of.’”
Those words took hold, and McCann left MSU and eventually enrolled at Hillsdale College. Now the former attorney and current District Court Judge for Michigan’s 16th District, she has a long and distinguished career on the bench.
McCann called her transfer to Hillsdale a “culture shock” at first, but said it quickly became like home.
“I made so many amazing friends there,” said McCann, who eventually joined the Chi Omega sorority. “I loved it.”
After graduating with her degree in English, she taught Advanced Placement English for a year for Livonia (Michigan) Schools. She then started taking night classes to get her law degree, and graduated from the Detroit College of Law in 1978.
Working for several years as a Wayne County assistant prosecutor, she opened a domestic relations law firm in Oakland County in 1983. However, her father convinced her to run for judge when he retired as the 16th District’s first judge in 1994.
She said her father told her that “you may make more money (as a lawyer), but you are never going to have the kind of life that you need where everything is in your control. You’ll feel like you can accomplish something.”
McCann decided to run, and was elected to the 16th District Court in 1995. Currently entering her 28th year on the bench, she served as president of the Michigan District Judges Association from 2010-2011 and was also elected to the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission.
“You learn so much,” McCann said of her career accomplishments. “You become such an expert on how the judiciary should run.”
McCann called her father “tough, but he was always a gentlemen” as a judge. She said she has tried to follow in his footsteps.
“You have to be disciplined. You have to have compassion,” McCann said. “If you’re going to make someone want to change, you can’t talk down to them. If I talk in a demeaning way to them, they won’t even hear me. I have to talk like a human being and with the same respect that I would expect them to talk to me. And if they can’t, I have them wait it out in jail.”
Despite her rewarding career in the 16th District, she said beginning a sobriety court in 2006 was “life-changing.”
The two-year program has participants reporting to probation officers twice a week. They are tested daily for drugs and alcohol, and they receive the necessary mental health and substance abuse treatment. She said she talks with the participants, and has a team of people who make sure the program is followed.
“They are so grateful,” McCann said of the people who complete the sobriety court. “The first six months of (the program), their minds are clear. And within a year, their bodies are so much better. It’s honestly the best day of the month when I get to see these folks. And there’s so much gratitude when they are done.”
Another memorable moment was when she was able to help raise the funding for a new courthouse. Taking more than nine years to complete, the courthouse was named the James R. McCann Hall of Justice Courthouse in her father’s honor.
“At that time it was one of the finest courthouses in the state,” McCann said of the building, which her father was able to see to completion before his death in 2019. “It was amazing.”
McCann’s term as judge concludes at the end of 2024, and she said it has been a rewarding career. She said she has Hillsdale in part to thank.
“I feel like Hillsdale imparts values,” said McCann, who recently returned for her 50th class reunion event. “The school has prospered and done so well, and has such a great direction right now.”
An avid gardener, she and her husband, Norm Nickin, enjoy traveling. They have three children and four grandchildren.
“Right now, I’m in the best place I can possibly be,” McCann said. “I can be at work in five minutes and I have a beautiful courthouse. I feel like I’m a people’s judge.”
Doug Goodnough, ’90, is Hillsdale’s director of Alumni Marketing. He enjoys connecting with fellow alumni in new and wonderful ways.
Published in May 2023